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Alongside conspiracy theories and stories
of manipulation, gold's history is filled
with wonderful illustrations of how much it
means to mankind, the extraordinary importance
placed on protecting it, and the sometimes
deadly lengths people will go to in order
to possess it.
In September 1939, as the German army advanced
towards Britain, the government decreed that
every person living in the United Kingdom
register their gold with the Royal Treasury.
Just weeks later on the 7th of October 1939,
HMS Emerald set sail from Plymouth in Great
Britain for Halifax, Nova Scotia-- the reason?
The hull contained millions of pounds of gold
bullion bound for the USA to pay for American
war materials.
12 months later with the war going badly for
the Allies and the battle for the North Atlantic
at its fiercest, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
used emergency wartime powers to seize the
gold that the citizens of the UK have been
forced to declare the previous year.
The gold was moved to the port of Greenock
in Scotland in secret, reloaded onto HMS Emerald,
and then dispatched to Canada.
So if the British were to be overrun by the
advancing Nazi forces, they would still have
the means to continue to fight.
One week later another convoy set off on the
same route, this time carrying $1.7 billion
of gold.
Today that gold will be worth over $29 billion
dollars.
In all, almost $30 billion of gold in today's
money was shipped thousands of miles in treacherous
seas and through a gauntlet of U-boats without
a single ounce being lost.
It was the single greatest and perhaps most
dangerous movement of wealth in history.
Stories such as the daring evacuation of Britain's
gold during World War II are well-documented.
But alongside such historical tales, there
are legends surrounding missing hoards of
gold that have fascinated treasure hunters
since time began.
One such legend centers around a notorious
Japanese general and a hidden gold stash,
which today would be worth billions.
The legend of Yamashita's gold has endured
for over 70 years and to this day attracts
treasure hunters from all over the world who
journey to the Philippines to search for billions
of dollars supposedly looted from all over
Southeast Asia by General Tomoyuki Yamashita,
the notorious Tiger of Malaya.
Yamashita's armies stole gold from bank vaults,
depositories, and commercial premises as he
cut a swathe through Asia with the Japanese
government intent on using their ill-gotten
gains to finance their expanding war effort.
The gold reached the Philippines on its way
to Singapore from where it was to be shipped
to Japan.
But with the war in the Pacific escalating
and the US Navy in the ascendant, it became
impossible to move the gold.
Instead, it was supposedly hidden somewhere
deep in the Philippine jungle.
Many of those who knew the location of the
hidden treasure were killed during the war
and Yamashita himself was executed for war
crimes in February of 1946 without giving
up the whereabouts of the eponymous stash.
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In the intervening 70 years, hundreds of fortune
hunters have sought Yamashita's gold.
A treasure hunter named Rogelio Roxas filed
a lawsuit in Hawaii against former Philippine
President Ferdinand Marcos, who he accused
of stealing the gold.
But even that has failed to stop adventures
applying to the National Museum of the Philippines
for a treasurer hunter's permit.
Roxas' lawsuit resulted in what was then the
largest ever award made by court-- $40.5 billion,
including damages.
However, the amount was reduced on appeal
to just $13 million.
Roxas, however, died mysteriously on the eve
of the trial and so never saw his treasure
hunt come to its conclusion.
The lawsuit concluded that Roxas found a treasure,
but that the treasure in question may not
have been that of Yamashita-- a technicality
which has been enough to maintain a steady
stream of would-be Indiana Joneses heading
for Manila.
