HUES JEWEL ISLE

Evening Star, Issue 16677, 8 March 1918, Page 7

HUES JEWEL ISLE

INTERNED SWINDLER’S BOTTLE FULL OF DUMONDS. Among the adventurers of German origin who have passed from the byways of the City of London into the safe keeping of an internment camp recently is a man known as Albert Edward Heyr, originator °f ® ** treasure 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 boh] imagination. During the winter of 1913-14 it was whispered in the city that one or two people wore 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 in the syndicate, and “ would not part with if for £100.” The value of the diamonds .as variously estimated at one, or two, or three millions. These stories had their origin in a yarn told by the German-South African Heyr. It began with a journey through the trackless desert of South-west Africa, and the discovery of a dying Boer. With his last breath the Eoer confided in. Heyr the story of the famous battle, and ' the usual “.plan.” The bottle contained the fruits of a lifetime of hoarding, and the plan pointed to an island ofl the coast of German South-west Africa as the hidingplace. 3 < There are, of course, laws framed in South Africa to prevent the export of diamonds without payment of a tax. Hence the hold which Herr’s story had on the imagination 'of city speculators. The island,. it was asserted, belonged neither to Great Britain nor to Germany, though cither might lay claim to it were it known that it contained a bottle full of diamonds. To secure the treasure a vessel must bo 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 storyj The fruits of it were seen when a young man of wealth was persuaded to borrow money on a reversionary interest in an estate, and finance the expedition. He lost both the money and the diamonds. Heyr wont 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 monev.