The Green Forest tribune., 1907-05-03

The most StupendOuS counterfeit ing operations in the history of the world are coming to light in the ori- ent. The amount of money involved is great almost beyond reckoning, and the method of forgery so far reaching, clever and dangerous that all the financiers of the east are alarmed
 The gigantic scheme, so successful 1y carried out that no living man knows its extent. is practically laid at the door of the Japanese Point by point the fact that the little brown men flooded all Manchuria and stuff ed the Russo-Chinese bank with spur ious money during the war with Rus sia is being established by experts. Sixteen million pounds, or SS0,000 900, cf the worthless stuff is said to have been detected. Nobody can guess low much more is extant
 Japanese enggayers and printers have manufactured counterfeit bank note that has deEed experts for two years and puzzles them still The Russo-Chinese, the Hongkong and Shanghai, the Imperial Bank of China and the Indo-Chinese bank-all these have felt the sting of the Japanese money viper. What effect it will have can as yet be only conjectured. Even Europe has suffered.
 Appeal has been made to the Jap- anese government to enact and en- force stringent laws to eXterminate the swarm of shreWd conuterfeiters in Nippon, and who elude the watch ful officials of that empire. It is claimed scant attention has been paid to this request. Japan has had many things to look after since her costly conquest of the Russian bear.
 Now Doubt the Truth.
 Experts from the Bank of England and the American Bank Note com- pany are now on the way to China to assist in ferreting out the tremen- dous amounts of bogus money known to be mixed with the genuine Their findings, if made public, are expected to startle the world They may be so momentous that they will be SUD- pressed to prevent the tottering of ahe strongest financial institutions in Asia. Bankers Of the orient fear. with good reason, that they are hold- Ing, locked in their burglar-proof vaults, tens of millions of pounds in counterfeit notes which they took for genuine, and which will spell ruin when disclosed
 In Kobe has been located q counter feitlng plant which is said to have cost $1000 000. It has ceased opera ticns, but worthless notes, so near perfection that only the minutest fault can be found by adopts, are declared to be still coming from the lana of cherry blossoms, chrysanthe nuns and fighting men. Other plants and ingenious imitators are presum- ed to be continuing the crooked work
 Last summer in the Russo-Chinese bank doubt arose as to 8 certain note 1t was for SIC, Mexican money, and numbered .0664 It was as perfect a reproduction of the genuine original as could be conceived The banks experts bored for weeks over it and a good note and could find not even the slightest discrepancy. Yet the bank note officials had strong cause to believe it forgery.
 Worst Fears Realized.
 Similar doubts had come up in the Imperial Bank of China and at the Indo- Chinese bank Persistent efforts, however, revealed no visible peculiar ity of a note-certainly none sufi. ciently fragrant to be observed in the regular transaction of business.
 Utterly in the dark. the bankers turned to this side of the water for light. To determine whether the sus- Dected notes were real or spurious, several of them and q number of un- occasionally good ones were sent to the American Bank Note company, New York, and also to the Bank of England, says the Cincinnati En. quirer.
 Consternation has been caused hy the replies sent to the oriental banks. To what extent they have been re- ceiving these counterfeits during three years and how many of them the banks themselves were and are holding as supposedly good money remains to De learned. Sixteen mil lion pounds $S0,00o, GOO - is an