PRICELESS LOOT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 13 January 1938, Page 8

PRICELESS LOOT

TREASURES AT BURLINGTON HOUSE lßy Air Mail—From Our Own Correspondent] LONDON, 16th December. Nearly half a million people admired the wonderful treasures shown at BurI lington House two years ago when the Chinese Art Exhibition was held there. These gorgeous art treasures and relics !of an immemorial culture have been j valued at £10.000.000. but in reality ! they are beyond all price, and quite irleplaceable. Misfortune seems to dog them. On shipment back to China after the London exhibition, the steamer on which they were loaded went ashore in heavy weather near Gib, and for some hours the firms with whom they had been insured had anxious | vigils. Now these Chinese treasures are in grave peril from Japanese guns and bombs, for they were stored . at Nanking. Efforts are being made to rush them to safety up the Yangtse river to Chungking. Apart from these priceless relics, however, and despite the ravages of the Taiping rebels when they stormed the city over eighty years ago, Nanking has other historic possessions now in grave jeopardy. The Great Wall. 70 feet high by 30 broad, still stands, and on Purple Mountain is the ornate tomb of Sun Yat-Sen, Father of the ill-starred Republic.