سياسي (خارجي) ٦٥٥٦/٤٠ "بيع أوراق نقدية إسترلينية في الشرق الأوسط." [و‎‎٢] (١٢/٣)

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R. . 8.10 a.m. 27th January, 1941.
No. 66
WWW
(o^ 6 ! . Your telegram No. 675.
Traffic is not passing through British hanks in
Iraq who will not accept Bank of England notes. The only
other handling channels are Bank of Rome and Kazilka and
I have not been able to obtain evidence as yet that notes
are being transmitted to Palestine through them. .1
strongly suspect however that notes are being smuggled
to Palestine by travellers especially grain cattle and
gold dealers and possibly by lorry drivers. . I am
enquiring further into this matter. Discount for notes
in Bagdad has increased from 10% to 13%.
Well informed source in close touch with Tehran
recently told^fet^^- Bank Bagdad that he had heard that
notes were reaching Iran from the Balkans in diplomatic
bags or by safe hands thus confirming Bucharest report.
It°may well be that similar means are being used for
sending notes to areas where they are still legal tender
especially India and Palestine.•
I see little hope of stopping the passage of notes
through Iraq but perhaps it would be^possible for Palestinian
authorities to oblige holders to register notes at
present in circulation with a view xo preventing smuggled
notes from entering into circulation.
Repeated to Jerusalem telegram No. 8 Saving,
Government -of India telegram No. 9, Tehran telegram No, 5.