Baudouin

Still Directing Bank Operating in French Pacific Colonies

rE announcement that M. Baudouin has been “appointed president of the administrative council of the Bank of Indo-China” again directs at tention to a condition of affairs that should not be allowed to continue.

It was pointed out in this journal in November, that most of the financial business between the British Dominions and the French South Pacific Colonies is carried out by the Bank of Indo- China, and that one of the men most prominently connected with that bank is Baudouin, notorious for his anti-British sentiments, and until recently a member of the Vichy Government.

A leading American publication not long ago did not hesitate to say openly that Baudouin was no friend of Britain.

The people connected with the bank’s operations in the French South Pacific Colonies insist that there is no connection between the Bank of Indo-China, as it is in the South Pacific, and the Bank of Indo-China as it exists in France. But that is mere poppycock and evasion. It probably is true that the bank is carrying on in the South Pacific as an autonomous institution; but, nevertheless, it still is a part of the bank of Indo-China which is controlled in France by Baudouin, and his associates, and if the bank in Indo- China makes profits out of the operations between Australia, New Zealand and the French Pacific Colonies, a certain pro portion of thosq profits inevitably v/ill find their way into the pockets of M.

Baudouin and his friends.

We have in the Australian Common wealth Parliament some patriots noted on occasions for their fieriness and clamour.

It seems extraordinary that they have no word or thought for the Bank of Indo-China and M. Baudouin.