THE HOPE DIAMOND.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 771, 21 March 1910, Page 8

THE HOPE DIAMOND.

: A DIVER'S SEARCH. By Telecraoh—Press Asflociation—OoorrfcbL New York, March 18. The "New York Herald's" Singapore correspondent states that a diver explored the. wreck of the FrencH liner La Seyne, expecting' to find the Hope diamond, which it is believed. Habib, a diamond merchant, who was drowned, had aboard the vessel. The, diver recovered the ship's, saie,' but' it did not jontain : the diamond.

The Hope diamond was bought in May, 1908, by the then Sultan of Turkey for £80,000. . In- .June 2astV. it was < sold■■ .for £16,000. ■ It is '44j carats, and . is by'., far, the' largest blue diamond known.. Originally it weighed carats, ; but .on coming into'the' possession of King Louis XIV of France about 200 years ago, it was cut-down to 67i carats, at which time .it was .valued at £18,115; ' During the French" Revolution r it disappeared with the .-regalia,, .and [ultimately . got" into the possession, of the family of .the Duke '■ of .Newcastle, . It' was -before' the public in July, -1899, when the Imperial Court of Appeal,'' upheld" a' decisionby. Mr. ■ ,Justioe ■' Byrne, 'on. behalf of the Newicastle family, forbidding Lord -Francis •Clinton-Hope to sell' :the , stone on the" .ground that it was a-.family heirloom. Tho La Seyne.belonged to the'MesIn November last, in tho Rhio Straits, near Singapore, she collided with the British India. Steam Navigation Company's steamer Onda.