WORLD'S RICHEST

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3370, 26 September 1931, Page 2

WORLD'S RICHEST

THOUSANDS OF MILLIONAIRES.

The rush of investors in the Irish Sweepstake emphasised the glamour of riches to a hard-up and depressed world. The price of a sweepstake l ticket brought more romantic dreams of anticipated joys, and glittering fortune for millions, than it is likely that even the big prizes themselves will materialise for the favoured few. The "get-rich-quickly fever" is a very human infirmity. Dramatic stories of mushroom millionaires and modern Dick Whittingtons, the romance of a Lord Dewer, Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Russell Sage, Sir David Yule, Sir Basil Zaharoff, for instance, provide enthralling reading of the Adventures of Success. The richest man in the world is i claimed to be the fifty-year-old Nizam of Hyderabad. He is said to refrain from investing his money in securities, because his wealth would soon become too cumbersome. Instead he keeps about £100,000,000 worth of gold in bricks and coin in his Palace strongbox. Jewellers and goldsmiths, who have valued his properties, estimate his fortune at £200,000,000, exclusive of the jewels of his Kingdom, which are worth an untold fortune, and have never been appraised. The world's richest woman was believed to be the late Miss Ella Wendel, of New York, who died in March, worth £40,000,000. But in May by the death of her father, Mr. George F. Baker, "the Sphinx of Wall Street," Mrs. Howard Bligh St. George, of Kingston-on-Thames, *is likely to inherit a substantial part of his property estimated at between £50,000,000 and £100,000,000. Lady Yule, Lady Houston and Lady Granard are amongst England's richest women. There has been a slump in millionaires during the last few years. British Inland Revenue reports showed 597 millionaires in 1924-5; 569 in 1925-6; 543 in 1926-7; and only 478 for the year ending 1930.

American dollar millionaires are numbered in thousands. In 1926, Mr. J. S. McCoy, chief actuary to the United States Treasury, calculated that on the basis of the income tax returns there were 11,000 millionaires in America, and that one out of every 10,450 of the population had attained millionaire rank. In 1929, Mr. Carl Snyder, of the Federal Reserve Bank, estimated between 30,000 and 40,000 dollarmillionaires in the United States, as against 7000 in 1914. The tremendous increase is due to colossal gambling. Americans with a yearly income at least 1,000,000 dollars, that is, £200,000, numbered 511 in 1928. Of these, 74 were women and 29 unmarried girls. The latest statistics disclose that 504 American citizens are taxed on incomes over 1,000,000 dollars, and that 38,650 persons can be reckoned in the millionaire class, as actually possessing more than 1,000,000 dollars.

The number of Germany's millionaires has dropped 60 per cent, since the war. Germany has now only 400 millionaires, with the gold-mark worth about one shilling to-day. The fortune of the ex-Kaiser, however, is variously estimated at between £7,000,000 and £12,500,000. Herr Flick and Herr Fritz Thyssen are two of Germany's richest men, whose fortunes can be reckoned in thousands of millions of marks. Herr Otto Wolff is another of the fraternity.

M. Cody is the richest man in France, having made more than £10,000,000 in face powders and perfumes. The last Sultan of- Turkey, a second son of "Abdul the Damned," who was deposed in 1909, owns fabulous wealth. His father's estate has been assessed at £300,000,000, and 27 relatives, including some of his nine wives and their children, are trying to secure a share. The Mitsuis, Iwasakis, and Sumitomos are the leading millionaires of Japan. The two first are believed to be worth £40,000,000 each, the third between £20,000,000 and £30,000,000. Jugo-Slavia boasts three important Croesus. Arthur Drach, said to possess about £40,000,000, George Weifertz £16,000,000, and Andrej Sarabon £3,200,000. Rumania's richest man is Dinu Mihall with £1,300,000. The wealthiest citizens of Hungary and Poland are Prince Paul Esterhazy and Count Alfred Potocki respectively. Bulgaria has no millionaires, and in Russia it is a crime to be rich.