In Rangoon last week Burmese customs men proudly reported their "biggest haul since 1952": the discovery of $31,000 in smuggled gold aboard the Dolpheverett, a Liberian-registered freighter operated by California's Everett-Orient Line. In Calcutta the Dolpheverett's sister ship Rutheverett is being confiscated outright by the Indian government. After a week-long search during which they all but dismantled the ship, Indian customs officers uncovered aboard the Rutheverett $700,000 worth of gold stashed away in hidey-holes ranging from the ship's garbage bin to secret compartments.
Americans, forbidden since 1933 to trade in gold, by now consider gold a harmless if expensive substance...
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