The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-31
FORGED BANK NOTES
 ARE IN CIRCULATION

London, May 31-That respectable British institution, the Bank of Eng land five-pound note. has fallen un- der grave suspicion; and unfortunate ly there is good reason for care in handling the once-honored liver"
 The evil influence emanates. like many other evil things, from Ger many where forged Bank of England notes are now being printed to the value of hundreds of thousands of pounds every week.
 The wholesale forgery of paper money is a Bolshevik trick devised by Lenin for the purpose of depriving capital of it's power all over the world.
 The first experiments in forgery were made in Moscow, and, as far as the Bank of England notes were con- cerned, were a lamentable failure.
 Some specimens of the early work of the Bolsheviks have reached Lon don; they are so coarse in material and design that they would deceive nobody.
 10000 Paid Agents in Berlin.
 Long experiments, however, inn proved both material and craftsman ship, remarkably, and in the end the Bolshevik forgers were able to produce a five-pound note remarkably like the real article. The next trou- ble they experienced was getting the notes into circulation, for it is not easy to send large parcels of forged notes from Moscow to this coun- try.
 The difficulty has been solved, to some extent, by transferring the presses to Berlin.
 
 the German capital, where they main tain all sorts of dangerous activities. without any serious check from the feeble German Government.
 They are all paid and furnished with extravagant funds from the forgery of German currency.
 It is estimated that quite one-fourth of the notes now current In Germany are Bolshevik forgeries, so actively have they been engaged in printing and circulating this bogus money.
 As a result the German banks, not knowing what amount of paper money IS out against them, have no notion whether they are solvent or not.
 The result, of course. is that wages continue to mount in Germany as they did in Russia a year before. while the purchasing power of money de- clines even more rapidly.
 This Is the state of affairs Lenin is seeking to bring about in France, Great Britain, and America; and the of so many excellent inn itations of Bank of England Flyers at the present moment is a warning of the real gravity of the danger
 Experts declare that the Bank of England note is the hardest paper cur rency in the world to forge, but no better imitation of the genuine article has ever been seen than those which are now being scattered broadcast in this country.
 TRACED TO RACECOURSE.
 A great many of the notes which have come under notice during the past week have been traced back to Epsom races, a circumstance which employed by the Bolsheviks in cir cuIating their forgeries.
 So many persons were victimized that a new bank note is regarded with suspicion on the racecourse, and every note is examined for some stamp, which may serve to establish it's pre- vious respectable history.
 The forged notes are being offered for sale in London with some degree of audacity, if the stories current about them are true.
 
 of a New Zealand soldier, who en- countered a friendly stranger in a cos mopolitan cafe in the West End of London. The man, well dressed and polished in manner, Insisted upon in viting the New Zealander to dinner. who was lavish with wine. liquors and expensive cigars.
 The real object of his kindness be- came apparent when the soldier had been mellowed by his princely hospi- tality. He was invited to a theatre, and in the taxicab in which the pair drove to the place of amusement, the host explained the secret of his af- fiuence and generosity. He was the representative of a firm which made money in the literal sense of the world.
 He produced a packet of flyers, the face value of which was $500. and in token of his great friendship, offered them to his guest Zor S10O in genuine currency. When they alighted at the theatre, the New Zealander went to look for a policeman: and guessing his intention, the money-merchant made off.
 Remarkable Imitation.
 The Bolshevik forged notes must not be confused with the Bank of Engraving" variety-a clumsy device designed to defeat the law which makes the possession of counterfeit money a criminal offence.
 The swindler caught with Bank of Engraving" used to plead that they were merely amusing parodies de- s.gned to hoax his friends; though that plea will no longer hold water. Any attentive observer can detect Bank of Engraving note; but the Bolshevik forgeries, made in Ger many, can only be detected from the real article by an expert.
 How completely such clever for geries are capable of undermining the currency system of a country is illus trated by a newspaper correspondent just back from Berlin.
 In discussing with a bank manager the large amount of forged paper current in Berlin, the bank official asked him what German money he then had in his possession. He pro ,a,-lx zt, t-1