STOLEN GROWN JEWELS

Evening Star, Issue 20193, 5 June 1929, Page 12

STOLEN GROWN JEWELS

SECRET HISTORY BY DETECTIVE

The story of the theft of the Austrian Crown jewels in England is told by Mr Edwin T. Woodhall, an esofficer of tho. Special Branch, Scotland Yard, in a recently-published- book, relates the ‘ Daily Mai!.’ According to Mr'Woodhall, who alter leaving tho police service became aprivate inquiry agent, the jewels were sent to a London lawyer, whom he calls “Mr Ralph,” for disposal, by the exEmperor Karl just before be made his abortive attempt to regain his throne in 1921. , . , Usually “ Mr Ralph ” kept the jewels in a safe deposit, but on one occasion he had them at his office to show to a prospective purchaser, and, because it was too late to send them back to the safe deposit, he took them to Ins home. He had a dinner party that night and, tho conversation turning on the wealtli of the European Princes, lie showed his guests the Austrian Crown jewels. Ho then locked them in his .private sale. Next morning they had disappeared. Mr Woodhall was called in to recover them. He says : “Mr Ralph ” was beside himself with rage when I asked him why lie had not called in tho police at once. “Tho police,” he said, witheringly. “Tho police; yon, Woodhall, who have graduated through Scotland yard, to ask me that. This is a matter of which the essence is secrecy.” Describing how he got on tho track of tho missing jewels, Dir Woodhall says ho traced one of “ Mr Ralph’s ” dinner party guests, whom he calls “ Cunniugham-Vicars,” to Paris, and because ho saw him take a I'rencli jeweller to his flat secured his arrest on a trumpery charge. After that 1 was able to make a thorough search of his flat. In the false bottom of a trunk wo found the jewels —all except ono necklace, which was never traced. . . . 11 Mr Ralph ”■ and I brought them back to London, where they were sold within a week' and the proceeds handed over. . . A few weeks after that'began tho ill-fated move of the ex-Einperor Karl for the recovery of his throne, and 1 cofel not help thinking at the time that if I had not recovered tho jewel* the funds might not have been forthcoming for that abortive bid for a lost dignity. ESCAPED PRINCE. The inner story of the mystery of tho escape of the. Egyptian Prince Ahmed Seif-ed-Din from a private asylum at Ticehurst, Sussex, in August, 1925, is revealed in the book. > The escape perplexed the police of Great Britain and the Continent. The Prince was allowed to go motoring with two attendants, and vanished. Later it was learnt that be had joined a steamer at Hastings for Boulogne on a, one-day trip, and ho was next heal’d of in Constantinople. Mr Woodhall admits that _ ho engineered the escape. He describes how he was stopped in Fleet street by an unknown man, who explained what ho varied, producing “ draft on the Bank of France for the equivalent of liaU-a-million ” to establish his bonafides. DASH TO THE COAST. Mr Woodhall flew to Paris to see Ibrahim Feridomi Pasha, who had married Princess Nevdjvaui, Prince Seif-ed-Din’s mother, and who, on her behalf, was doing his utmost to secure the release of his stepson. Mr Woodhall returned to England committed to tlyo adventure. Ho writes;—

On the afternoon of Thursday, August 31, accompanied by X., I drove quietly along a certain Sussex road. . . . Wo both ko.p'b anxiously look-; ing behind. The car wc expected was late. Had something gone wrong at the last minute? It was a ghastly thought. At last we saw the car approaching. At a, given' signal from mo instead of taking tho accustomed turning, it kept straight on, following tho ear in which drove X. and T. Rapidly we covered the distance to Hastings. ...

With five minutes tn spare Prince Ahmed Seif-ed-Din and his two attendants boarded a crowded pleasure steamer for Boulogne. • The journey to Boiiglogiie was safely accomplished, and there I witnessed a touching reunion of the ’ Princess Ncvdjvani, his mother, with her son. An aeroplane waited to take ns to Paris.

Constantinople was reached via Marseilles and Sofia.