HUN'S JEWEL ISLE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 141, 4 March 1918, Page 6

HUN'S JEWEL ISLE

INTERNED SWINDLER'S BOTTLE I<'ULL 01'' DIAMONDS.

Among the adventurers of German origin who have passed from the byways of the City of London into the bate, keeping of an internment camp recently is a man known as Albert ■Edward Heyr, originator of a "treasuie hunt," which ended disastrously for several people in 1914. Heyr, who was born in Germany and lived most of his life in South Africa, had a bold imagination. During the winter of 1913-14 it was whispered in the city that one or two people were about to make a fortune by investment in a private syndicate formed to find a whisky bottle "full of diamonds." Here and there one. could be found who had ventured £5 iu the syndicate and "would not part with it for £100." The value of the diamonds was variously estimated at one, or two, or three millions.

These stories had their origin in a varn told by the German South African Heyr. It began with a journey through the. trackless close) t of SouthWest Africa and the discovery of a dying Boer. With his last breath tho Boer confided in Heyr the story of the famous battle, and the usu.il "plan." The bottle contained the fruits of a lifetime of hoarding, and the plan pointed to an island off the coast of German South-West,Africa as the hidingplace. There arc, of course, laws framed m South Africa to prevent tho export of diamonds without payment of a tax Hence tho hold which- Heyr's story had on the imagination of city speculators. The island, it was asserted, belonged neither \o Great Britain nor to Germany, though either might'laj claim to it were it known that it contained a bottle full of diamonds. To secure the treasure a vessel must be found and equipped, armed if necessary; the bold Heyr must be given command and the journey must be undertaken by men "willing to risk anything." Such was the story The fruits of it were seen when a young man of wealth was persuaded io borrow money on a reversionary interest in an estate and fiivance the expedition. He lost both tho money and the diamonds. Heyr went to South Africa just before the war .and again after war broke, out. ' On both occasions he returned without the diamonds but well furnished with money.