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7.
account (which Mr. Smith assessed as somewhere between
fifty and seventy five per cent of the truth) the
sum paid by way of ransom was relatively very small,
that there is no hint of any attempt to force the
bank into active collaboration with the puppet
authorities, and that there is no indication of any
impending danger to the stability of the currency.
11.
His Majesty's Consul-General had, prior to
the receipt of the telegrams from His Excellency,
the Governor referred to above, obtained from the
Police of the French Municipal Council a short
report dated 9th February from which it had appeared
that the abduction of Mr. Wu had no implications
other than that of an ordinary kidnapping for ransom.
He has now received from a secret source information
to the effect merely that Mr. Wu had been released after
he had been taken to, and examined by, the Japanese
Gendarmes Headquarters in Hongkew; the report adds
that his release was effected by his family on
payment of three hundred thousand dollars, ($300,000,)
but that according to information from another (pro-
Japanese) sourse, Mr. Wu had paid no ransom but had
been forced to agree to take up a very important.
post in the "Central Bank" to be formed in the near
future.
12.
So far as I have been able to a scertain,
there have been no signs of a run on the Ningpo
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