The second reason offered for blanket nonprosecutions for crimes committed at the megabanks involves the possibility that such prosecutions could harm the economy.

The ceremony and its scene were characterised by that high sense of the theatrical which has marked the activities of the Third Reich.

They ſay here, […] that ye deſired not the king and England to agree, becauſe it would rack the noblemen, […] I anſwered in your name that I was aſſured you had never ſpoken it. Mr. Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean very mickle to his opinion.

As the Japanese closed in on Tunghwa, Gilbert gave asylum to important figures of the resistance and the former government and stored trunks containing their personal belongings. He also took care of wounded soldiers from the defeated Chinese army. Not surprisingly, the Japanese put him on their blacklist and, after the fall of Tunghwa, prepared to raid his place for evidence.