Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1920-11-18
RUSSIAN COLD
SENT TO CANADA
Strange Story of Transfer of Bull
lion Made by Two War
ships at Sea.
HURRIED TO OTTAWA Mint
Secretly Shipped Across Dominion in
Heavily Guarded Special Train
Hitherto Unpublished Romantic
Story of the War.

Victoria, B. C.-Stories of a secret
transfer of millions of dollars of Rus
sian gold from one ship to another in
half a gale at sea off the Canadian
Pacific coast and of a rush trip with
the money across Canada in a heavily
guarded special train, disguised as
silk express were published in the Vic
toria ColOnist recently as part of the
hitherto untold history of the World
war
Two recent newspaper dispatches,
seemingly unrelated, the COlOniSt said,
recalled the ''hitherto unpublished and
romantic story of the gold shipment.
One dispatch from Europe said Mr..
NOvitsky, former assistant to the min
lister Of finance Of the all-RusSian gov
eminent, had limited at the huge
amounts of gold shipped through Van
cOuver, B. c. during the war, includ-
ing f60,000,000 from VladivOstok.
Warships Figure in Story.
The other dispatch said the Cana
dian cruiser Rainbow had been sold to
a Seattle firm. The connection, the
COlonist said, was in the fact the Rain
bow transferred a big shipment of the
gold at sea from a Japanese WarShip
and brought it into Vancouver
Russias gold, the story continued,
came in several shipments, the first of
which amounted to about $45,OOO,OO0.
1t was in the form of bullion in boxes
about fifteen inches long, and was
loaded at Vladivostok early in 1916 for
transfer to the Ottawa (Canada) mint.
A big Japanese warship with NovitZky
in charge of the bullion, carried the
money across the Pacific.
Rainbow Gets Treasure.
The treasure ship never touched a
Canadian port, however, for far out at
sea the Rainbow, in q near-gale, met
the Warship and the precious freight
was transferred between the heaves of
the rollers. The Warship turned back
and the little cruiser steamed into Van
cOuver, arriving at the Canadian Pa
cific dock at three o'clock on a dark
and wet morning.
Awaiting her were officials of the
Dominion Express company, who had
come out from Montreal in their pri-
waite car. = A picked crew put the
money on special train of five eX-
press cars, which had been switched
into the Canadian Pacific dock. Each
car was loaded with S9,OO0,0O0 in gold.
Greatest Caution Used.
Every door was guarded and barred
and the transcOntinental trip started.
telephone system connected the
whole train, and whenever a sentinel
wished to move from one car to an
other he did so on release from the
official car. The doors were never
opened when the train was at a stand
still, and no guard was permitted to
show himself from the train windows
while passing through towns. At night
the train ran in darkness, and at each
divisional point, when engines were
changed, detectives guarded the plat
form until the journey was resumed.
AS an additional precaution the train
was operated at irregular speeds on
different legs of the trip.
Sleighs backed up to the train at OF
tawa and the gold was unloaded and
taken to the mint under direction of
Novitsky.
The train was the first of several
which passed through Vancouver dur
ing the war. In August, 1916, another
train carried $5OOOO,OOO across Can
ada, and in January, 1917, $177,OOO,OO0
made the trip.