WHO IS SHE?

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 50, 28 February 1923, Page 13

WHO IS SHE?

j MYSTERY DUCHESS. ' STORY OF FABULOUS WEALTH, i GOING TO NEW ZEALAND. i From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 23. One of the most amazing persons that has ever come to Sydney arrived this week from London. On the passenger list of the steamer by which she travelled her name appeared as Her Highness the Grand Duchess Princess Ivanovitch. She claims to be of the Russian nobility, to own millions Of pounds, palaces; arid priceless jewels. A glance through the Almanack de Gotha fails to reveal any such person. A glance at the person herself is even more convincing that this woman is about the least likely person in the world to belong to nobility. She is nearer sixty than seventy, frail, dia* hevelled, and dressed in shabby, motheaten clothes. But with all the pathos and humour surrounding her she tells a story so astounding that Sydney is still wondering what sort of brain "this woman has that can produce such a tale. She says that she will leave for New Zealand to-day by the Manuka. The story told on arrival here is as follows:—

She originally was engaged to be married to Vereker Verschoyle Clay, who was one of the wealthiest Americans. While he was proceeding from Valparaiso to San Francisco, where the marriage was to take place, a seaman fell overboard from Mr. Clay's private yacht. Mr. Clay dived over and saved him, but contracted double pneumonia from which he died a few weeks later. In his will he bequeathed 22 millions of pounds to the Duchess. The Duke, however, whom she afterwards married, would not allow her to touch a penny of it, so her story runs. An old will was then found, in which" Mr. Clay bequeathed the 22 millions of pounds to American hospitals. Of this £30,000 was returned to the Duchess, and with this she had a memorial church built in a village in Virginia to Mr. Clay. Its walls were lined with rare white marble. The Duchess says that she is to be joined in New Zealand in about two months by the Duke, who is now in Russia. The Duke, she says, is the handsomest man in Europe to-day. He is 68 years of age, but a remarkably active and upright man. He commands what was once the Czar's special regiment. His uniform is of white cloth covered with gold, and he wear* a gold helmet with rare white plumes. The Duchess claims that her husband is a cousin of the late Czar, and is aetualfy heir to the Russian throne, but he is hoping he will never have to succeed to the throne. She says that he is at present delayed on one of his numerous estates in Siberia through an uprising among the peasants. He is coming to Australia, and will then go to New Zealand, the Duchess says, in the most gorgeous yacht in the world. It is valued at £250,000. Last year the King of England visited them at Cowes and wanted to purchase the yacht, but the Duke would not sell.