VANISHED JEWELS

Evening Star, Issue 20019, 9 November 1928, Page 2

VANISHED JEWELS

SOLD MARKET OF DAMASCUS At the bottom of tbe Souk el irouem, close to the walls of the Groat Mosque des Ommandes, stands the gold market ot Damascus. About a thousand yards to tho north-west lies ,the tomb of Saladin, while out to tho eastern extremities of tho holy sections that of Fatmah, daughter of the prophet Mahomet. The whole atmosphere savours of jthe Arabian lights—camels, robed figures of Arabs, the uiulUpd outlines of their women. Along the narrow streets come unending caravans of camels, bringing in merchandise for barter in this clearing-house of East and West. The gold market ot Damascus ! has undoubtedly a very sinister position in the gem markets of tbe world—a fact not generally known to the visitor. But tho position of Damascus makes it unique. To this city, therefore, arrive sooner or later nearly all great stones that for some reason or other must pass for ever out of the ken of their hemisphere. They find their way to tho fold market, and here the buyer of the i'est will seek for that which has been stolen from the potentate of tbe East. The merchant of the East will buy the diamond that once graced the toilette of a millionairess, or wilt .barter for the ruby that formed the centre of ■ome wonder tiara. ■ The gold market of Damascus is one of the. very oldest institutions . of the sort in the world. There" is very little doubt that Solomon sent his merchants there to buy the stones of the Indies, while Ptolemy 1., tho great Pharoah, bought stones of value from the savage races of the great Asian plains. , Here the conquering Turks did business with their plunder, and the Greek merchants of the falling Roman empire came to seek precious baubles for the fops of tho courts'of: thb degenerate Caesars. To-day the economic conditions ot both East and West have changed the demands of the world. But, in spite of this, the gold market of Damascus continues its nefarious trade. The cleverness of the dealers is astounding. They have almost a psychic power of divining the would-be buyer from the postling crowds that fill their bazaars. Nor is there any necessity that .such a, buyer should belong to the illicit, or genuine jewel trade. However, there is one observance that is never broken. Jewels' that come 'from the West are,.never sold back to people of the West. Gems that come from tho East, "pass westward. . ‘- ■.VyL. As far as possible jevels that come into Damascus are never -recut, and in many cases they are not; even taken out of their original setting,.,,; This oi course makes Damascus ,a, .much better medium than tho Dutch ports, as ■the thief or his agent sells outright without the cost of preliminary, alterations. , . , The stones from the East, are, nearly always offered and boug* t . in their heavy gold claw settings. Smaller •tones and pearls are offered for." sale in bulk A great numheib:;.6f-V.pearlß find their way to Damascus from the fisheries of the Persian Gulf, simply iuwing been passed through illicit channels by the divers. In the gold market there no definite procedure • on the parte of the merchant in approaching a .potential buyer. Very often _ he will ~ choose a woman, as he realises that she will in nearly all cases have no connection with such forces as international police. Yet men of the West will very’ often find themselves confronted, by a tempting offer. . , In the case of _ jewels going easy, these are almost invariably passed in the clothing - of Mohainmf<||iPf ,^®® n » as the oacredness of tho "veil protects them from a police search of any description. - Not very long ago two American .'girls went into the gold market of Da.'■mascus. What they actually wanted ' jbo .buy Xfts siftye bangles, and after

moving up and down the bazaars they were confronted by a suave Syrian. After the purchase of the bangles coffee was produced, and one of the girls, on emptying her cup, saw a glittering lump sticking to the sediment that lies at the bottom of Arab Coffee. She tried to move it with her spoon, but found that it was sot actually into the cup. ■ , . ; “ Is' madamC' interested in coffee sets?. If so,. perhaps she would’ look at these?’’’ inquired the merchant. Madam was interested, and in the end bought the cups for SOOdol. The diamond at the bottom of the cup sold in New York for £2OO.

A year ago tho French police atßeyrnth received a cable from Paris, ami acting on it, arrested a man, took him to the Surctc Generate, and there searched him. The search produced gems to the value of over £IO,OOO, most of which were identified. There is one other very curious thing about tho gold market'of Damascus, the fact that the merchants take practically no pains to guard their possessions. Safes of anything like modern construction are unknown. A great number of iron boxes fill the lloors of the bazaars, but these would be nothing else than child’s play to the modern cracksman.” At the same time the public. ,at least, never seem to hear of a theft of any description. Perhaps even a calamity of the kind must be shrouded up, lest inquiries might reach the ears of those who would recognise something in the particulars of the stolen goods. East is East and West is West, The gold market of Damascus realises that never the twain shall meet. In nearly every case a jewel that has passed so far as their bazaars can never again be traced by the police.

A visitor to Damascus may go a thousand times to the gold market—and find nothing. Perhaps he really seeks to buy stenes, but the sellers for some reason or another will hold aloof. Ho will be offered hundreds of ordinary pieces of jewellery, but nothing of interest will be produced, . Another visitor may go to the Pity and before he has been a day in the place a suave merchant will .call at his hotel and press him to call at .the bazaars. In many cases the visitor has not the slightest intention to buy, but the merchants have recognised the type with which they want to do business. , . Hence many people come away from Damascus disbelieving m the existence of the market for stolen gems.