DOLLAR PRINCESS LOST MILLIONS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3479, 15 October 1926, Page 4

DOLLAR PRINCESS LOST MILLIONS

SENT TO BOLSTER UP THE GREEK THRONE. ALMOST A QUEEN. How the widow of an American millionaire sacrificed her vast Inherited fortune in ia vain effort to bolster up the tottering throne of Greece is revealed by the account of her estate Hied in New York. Princess Anastasia of Greece, who was married to Prince Christopher, brother of Kingg Constantine, has left only £600,000, although from her former husband, the late William B. Leeds, "the tinplate king,” she inherited a sum of nearly £8,000,000. Since her widowhood in 1908 it has shrunk by over £7,000,000, land at least £2,000,000 is reported to have gone in her efforts to restore ex-King Constantine to the throne of Greece. Might Have Been a Queen. She nearly succeeded in her efforts, and had Constantine been equal to the opportunities she created for him he need not have died in exile. There was even a chance that Mollie Stew-, art, of Cleveland, Ohio (Princess Anhstasia’s maiden name) might have been the first queen exported from America to Europe, but fate ruled otherwise.

As Mrs. Leeds, the fabulously wealthy widow, who was known as the "Dollar Princess,” she went to Europe and won a powerful position ?n society. King Constantine’s bachelor brother. Prince Christopher, proposed to her in defiance of warnings from Athens.

They were married in 1920, and soon afterw'ards the Prince was offered the Crown of Lithuania, the deputation making no secret of the fact that his rich American wife was far from being a hindrance to his acceptance. But the opportunity had grave risks and the Prince declined. King-making, The “'almighty dollar” had a profound effect in Greece, and soon the beautiful wife of the ex-King's brother was officially recognised as 'Her Royal Highness.” She took the whole, of the Greek Royal Family in hand and put money in their pockets andj courage in their hearts. Ex-King Oonsliantino, poverty-1 I stricken in Switzerland, she succeeded for a time in restoring to a semblance of popular favour, but she could not endow him with the states-! tranship lie lacked, and h-r king-! making activities, ns is known, ended tragically. j But with her nephew as the nrKing, the Princess's initu nc Royal household of Gcantina powerful and unchallenged, and (lie! marriage of her sen. Mr. Win. IV Leeds, junr„ to I’t in.-.-sa X-nia of

Greece, was but another tribute to the I status she .won for herself in the j courts of Europe. i In the hour of her greatest eriumph she died in her London house in 1923 l aide of American heiresses who have I made bids for power in Europe. ! tVhat part of her shattered fortune temained she has bequeathed to her husband, Prince Christopher of Greece, and to Mrs. Margaret Stewart Green.