DIED BANKRUPT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 118, 14 November 1929, Page 9

DIED BANKRUPT

ZOUBKOFF RESPONSIBLE

LAST WORDS IN ENGLISH

(Received 14th November, 11 a.m.) BONN, 13th November. The Princess died bankrupt within a week of serving divorce papers on the ex-dishwasher, Zoubkoff, who is held largely responsible. Tho tragic end was due to pneumonia, but grief accentuated it. No relatives were present, merely a few personal attendants. The Princess became more or less unconscious

yesterday morning, and did not rally. Her last words were spoken in English, tho language she always used whenover possible. The end, after hours of suffering, was peaceful. The Grand Duchess of Hesse, the second sister, who called first on Sunday, remained the whola of Monday, when a reconciliation took place after a separation caused by the unfortunate marriage. During the last day o two the ox-Kaiser, who had been outraged by the events, relented and made frequent telephonic inquiries. The doctors stated that the ex-Kaiser would have visited her but -for political obstacles.

Tho ex-Kaiser's sister, Princess Victoria, whose death is reported above, was' born in 1866. Her first husband, Prince Adolphus of Schaumburg Lippe, died in 1916, and for eleven years she remained a widow.- On the 21st November, 1927, she was married to M. Zoubkoff, a Bussiaa dancer. At the time of the marriage M. Zoubkoff was only 27 years of age, and considerable opposition to the union was manifested in some quarters, and it was reported at the time that the former Kaiser refused to give his consent. Prom the time the betrothal of Princess Victoria and Zoubkofi was mado known, it was evident that powerful forces were working against them, and. after the marriage the couple were more or less always in trouble. First of all, the bride's family did all that was possible to provent the marriage, and since then practically up to the time of her death they attempted to sequestrate her property from the grasping hands of her husband. Her relatives took steps with the object of having her pecuniary affairs placed under voluntary, or, if that should be impracticable, • compulsory guardianship. What purported to bo details of her money matters were given, by a Berlin paper with the purpose of proving that she was involved in serious financial embarrassment, although she was receiving from the family of Schaumburg-Lippe an annual appanage of £30,000, and owned a palace at Bonn, worth, with its contents, £600,----000. Another Berlin paper, which all along placed its columns at the disposal of the Princess and her husband when they wished to address themselves to the public, published the following statement by her:—"l authorise you expressly to declare that the account given in a Berlin paper of financial transactions and an alleged clouding over of my marriage is devoid of all truth. I know nothing whatever of the events mentioned in this account. Nor do I know anything of a dissolntdon of the marriage contemplated by me or of an intention to place a guardian at my side by compulsion. These assertions can emanate only from a quarter which has a definite but, to me, unintelligible interest in the ruining of my marriage. I protest against my private life being again made the object of pubJic discussion iv this scandalous manner."