New Britain herald., 1918-12-12
Banking in PetrOgrad.


 anty Trust NeWs)
 AS an illustration of the difficulty of securing even the simplest informa- tion, l may relate the following expe- rence: The president of a prominent American export firm came to me in Petrograd ill January of this year with letters from the Guaranty Trust com pany, asking me to look up the rec ord on a small transa ction, merely to ascertain what instructions had been given by us to a certain bank in Pe- trograd regarding payment on a draft l told him that all the banks were closed, but we started to see what we could do. Arriving at the bank and finding everything in front completely barred, he was inclined to give the matter up, but I knew Russia we'll enough by this time to search for the secret path.
 The process was as complicated as l have since found following the Green Line in the New York sub- way. Taking certain shifty- To oking individuals. who were clearly trying to avoid observation, as guides, we went through two courtya rds and. a coal cellar and finally found a staircase. At the top we came against a locked door with peep-hole covered by slide. Here we announced we were bringing an important message from America, and managed to get by the guard. Inside a few Bolshevik sol dlers were in charge: after some search we managed to find one of the former directors He told us that our little matter was in the hands of MT. K, another director, but that MT. K. did not dare to come to the bank, and he didn't know how to find him. Hav- ing finally extracted Mr. Ks house address, started out. but were caught at the door by a messenger. evidently sent by the director who whispered to us that we might try in the office of a tourist bureau under the bank. Presenting ourselves here. we asked if they knew anything of MT. K. They expressed surprise at our searching for him there, and claimed to know nothing about him. We asked if they could give us his telephone number, and they simply gave us the telephone book for us to look it up ourselves.
 While we were doing this, g. small man who had been sitting untitled up in fur coat in a corner came up and asked whom we wished to see, and then announced himself as.Mr. K. It was clear that his practice was to sit in a retired nook and look over any body who might be inquiring for him, and then announce himself when the party seemed safe. Hearing us talk English, he was not afraid to ap- proach us Having stated our case, MT K. explained that it was impossi- ble for him to get into the bank to examine the records and even I felt that we had played our last card. However, there always seems to be one more card to play in Russia, and Mr. K. explained that one of the clerks was q confidential agent of his own and reported to him every night He would ask him to purloin the ne cessary book from the bank and bring it to him, and we were to meet on the following Monday to examine the records.
 After making a second trip to Mr. K, We found however. that his par ticular agent had come under sus- plcion on the part of fellow-clerks, as a, strike-breaker. It sh hould be re- membered that in addition to the con- fusion caused by the Bolsheyiks taking control, the employees had all struck as protest against this control. When this particular clerk came to the bank with the object of purloining the rec ord, he was met by members of the strike committee and threatened with violence if he entered the bank. Here was no question of paying money but simply of seeing a copy of a letter Written months before, to straighten out the mutual obligations between two Americans. There was no dues- ton of a claim against the Russian bank whatsoever. After more than a week of persistent effort, we gave it up as impossible