FRANCE: Largest Haul

With war-worried European nations anxious to stock their coffers with all the gold they can lay hands on, French police were especially chagrined last week, when, from under their very noses, bandits got away with $1,890,000 in gold, the largest haul in French criminal history. The gold, being shipped to a Belgian smelting plant from the Belgian Congo, was unceremoniously stowed aboard an ordinary freight train northbound from Marseille one night last week. Few miles outside the city, the train’s emergency brakes were jammed on. As trainmen and guards swung down to investigate, six masked men whooped out from the trackside, fired shots in the air and forced their way into the gold car. An accomplice, hidden on the train, joined them as they hurriedly lugged the gold crates to their cars. Then they sped away toward the Italian border.