FO371-24687 — Page 16

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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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