My investigation of the hidden facts of Seddon’s case had been time consuming. At the same time, it did not impede the progress of my doctoral thesis. Jack, the publican, looked at me with concern when I arrived exhausted after long hours of work. Frequently, he treated me to a cup of strongly brewed black coffee and looked at me disapprovingly when I had a nip of rum.
A few days later, I called again on Dennis Gray. I noticed the twinkle in his shrewd eyes when he handed me his meticulous notes respecting the drafts of the first two chapters of my thesis. His body language, too, indicated he thought my treatment was starry eyed.
“Have I overlooked some important points?”
“I don’t think so. Still, you deal with the façade. Bankers would love the clarity and be relieved that their record remains unscathed. Still, I suspect that, right from the start, the real background is often shoved into a corner.”
“You are thinking of the Seddon case, aren’t you?”
“I am. But, of course, it is only an illustration of what goes on generally. And I would like to know what you found out about that case. Actually, did you get to the bottom of it?”
Dennis Gray listened attentively to my narration of the facts. When I finished, he grinned at me. “Oh well, it was a fishy case, wasn’t it?”
“Wasn’t it ever. But is it an isolated case or, rather, one of a norm?”
“Rather common,” he responded unflinchingly.
“But surely, exchange control measures are of recent origin.”
“We had some during the First World War and, I suspect, even earlier than that. But exchange control involves only one instance leading to law evasion. Tax frauds, customs evasion, illegal dealings and other untoward transactions are not new. We have lived with them for ages.”
“But surely, a respectable bank would not get involved. It would wash its hands of the affair when any illegality or shady dealings became apparent.”
“But when do they become apparent?”
“Tell me, Mr Gray: what do you think would be your own bank’s reaction to a case like Seddon’s?”
”The same as Masterman’s, I suspect. As long as the customer is creditworthy, we do our best to carry out his instructions. We’ll have to wash our hands off an affair only when we know it involves an illegal angle.”
“Do you then ignore mere suspicions?”
“We have to: that is, if we want to remain in business.”
Dennis Gray’s observations made me ponder. I had, of course, been aware that from time to time banks had to close their eyes when they suspected a transaction was shady. Their concern was not to lose a moneyed customer.