Bank Of Indo

China

History of Remarkable Institution

NOUMEA, April 20.

HERE, without comment—save that New Caledonians themselves are far from satisfied with a banking system which fetters their country with an iron monopoly—is the official story of the Bank of Indo-China, as related in a book officially published in Paris in con nection with the last great Colonial Exhibition held there prior to the war:— “The Bank of Indo-China was founded in 1875, with the object of excluding English and American banking from Indo-China. With Paris headquarters, the bank started with two branches, one at Pondicherry and the other at Saigon. It was given the right, after approval by Ministerial decree, to estab lish agencies at all points of the Far East where commercial houses operated governed by French law, as well as in the ports of China, Japan and the East Indies.

“The French Government, in accord ing the bank the right of issuing notes for Indo-China and French India, set the new institution on the road to a vaster destiny than that of similar banks established in our old colonies. Provi sion notably was made for the bank to play a big role in the development of agricultural colonisation, by means of guaranteed loans and advances on har vests.

“By successive stages the bank ex tended its network of operations. It opened at Haiphong in 1885 and at Hanoi in 1887, following the pacification of the Red River region. A decree of February 20, 1888, prolonged and ex tended its privileges, not only through out Tonkin, but to Annum and Cam bodge, and branches were established in 1891 at Phnom-Penh and at Tourane.

“The same decree obliged the bank to open a branch at Noumea, to replace the local licensed Bank of New Caledonia which, founded in 1874, had gone smash in 1878 (year of nickel slump). The Hong Kong branch was founded in 1894, Bangkok in 1897, Shanghai in 1898, Canton and Hangkow in 1902, Sin gapore in 1905, Tientsin and Pekin in 1907.

“By virtue of a decree of February, 1904, the bank opened in Papeete in 1905, in Jibouti in 1908, and afterwards at Dire-Dawa and Addis Ababa.”

EDITORIAL NOTE: Although the ownership and directorate of the Bank of Indo-China are deeply inter-twined with anti-British elements in Metropo litan France and the Vichy Government, the institution was allowed to continue its operations in New Caledonia and French Oceania after the Vichy Govern ment was ejected. That is one of the minor mysteries of the war. It is said that the" staff, in all Fighting French Colonies, has been “purged.” But it never has been shown that the owner ship has changed. Who gets the pro fits which the bank must be making out of the present exceptional conditions in the South Pacific?

Mr. Smythe, of Cable & Wireless, Ltd., passed through Suva on his way to Fanning Island, in April. He was stationed in Suva between 1919 and 1924.

Mr. A. A. Wright, formerly of Fiji, and now Administrator of St. Lucia, West Indies, was recently away on five months’ vacation.