EMPEROR'S MARRIAGE LINES.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13110, 8 May 1908, Page 7

EMPEROR'S MARRIAGE LINES.

GERMAN" OFFICER IN TROUBWE.

United Prese Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright. BERLIN, May 6. Tho Kaiser has ordered the prosecution of a Gorman, officer, who is suspected of complicity in tho theft oF the Emperor of China's marriage lines.

The looting of the Imperial Palace at Pokin in 1900 by the allied troops ■was one of the most disgraceful blots in the history of Western dealings with the Far East. Among the documents missed at the time was the marriage contract of the reigning EmperoTj a moet sacred document in the eyes of the Chinese. Ever since its disappearance Chinese diplomatic representatives in all parts of the world have conducted an exhaustive search* for its whereabouts. At list it was located in a village in Southern Germany in the possession of a tavernkeeper, who had not the slightest notion of ite import. The marriage contract consists of a gorgeous piece of silk some four feet in length and a foot wide, which folds up in. a curious manner until it assumes the form, of a fancy wallet. It is richly emblazoned with a.nd other emblems.

Not long asJb the New York correspondent of "The Times" wrote in scathing terms oP the public sale in New York of loot from the Palace, owned by Mrs Confer, wife of tho Minister to China, during th-q Boxer ris'ng. Among tho articles were eacred relics, garments of State belonging to the Emperor and the Court, adornments of private rooms. It was explained T>y an American paper that Air CV>nwr ]>urc3i«st T tho goods from despoilers.