| |
The Seas Beyond: International Expansion
Vladivostok
Relying on reports that the Bolshevik revolution would be decisively crushed, Royal Bank decided to open a branch in Vladivostok to serve the banking needs of resident Canadian merchants and the Canadian Expeditionary Force and British troops stationed there. Manager D.C. Rea, two staff members and a 57 ton prefabricated bank building were dispatched from Vancouver for Siberia on November 28, 1918. By December 21, the group had reached Vladivostok and on a bitterly cold winter day, Rea presented his credentials to Dana Wilgress, Canadian Trade Commissioner in Vladivostok. Arrangements for opening the branch were mired in red tape resulting in a delay until March 1919 when the branch opened in leased premises - the prefab structure was never used.
The Vladivostok posting was not a happy one due to political instability and rampant inflation. Gunfire kept the staff awake at night and on many occasions in the morning there would be five or six dead bodies lying in the street. Business never reached its anticipated potential and when Canadian and British troops withdrew from Siberia, the branch was forced to close in October 1919. The bank would not reopen in the Far East until 1958, when a representative was posted to Hong Kong.
In 1956, Royal Bank unofficially returned to Russia at a time when westerners seldom travelled to Eastern Europe. Although touted as a personal trip to chat with the Soviet finance minister and the head of the country's central bank, Royal Bank's chairman James Muir spoke candidly about the potential of this rapidly expanding country and the dangers of ostracizing its 225 million people. Muir's visit predated any similar visit by a Canadian minister of external affairs and his comments helped turn Canadian opinion on the Soviet Union, contributing to the rapprochement between East and West.
|
|
