SECRET MINE OF DIAMONDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14223, 20 November 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

SECRET MINE OF DIAMONDS.

OWNER ARRESTED FOR SMUGGLING. It, is announced from Berlin that a man named Heim, under arrest there on a charge of diamond smuggling in South-west Africa, committed suicide in the prison infirmary. • ; „ , i • His death puts the crowning interest of great mystery on stories of. wonderful discoveries of diamonds in South-west Africa. Heim leased extensive land, and with the assistance of friends, secretly worked a mine there. The authorities knew nothing of the affair till it was reported to them by their European agents that Heim was back and disposing of many brilliants in European diamond centres. \ The same agents professed-to have discovered • that he smuggled a' large number "secreted in 'cement into Germany. When the Colonial Omce instituted inquiries they found Heijn had a deposit, of £10,000 in German banks and about. £3000 worth of uncut diamonds still in his possession; But the authorities had not then sufficient evidence on which to take action. Finally in July last Heim took a villa in a Berlin suburo, and settled down there with his wife and child. - Detectives were watching him day and night, however, and he was arrested on the Potsdamer Platz. It was stated that he was planning another big coup,' his accomplices having discovered another, large; diamond field in the southern part of South-west Africa. Certain friends, alleged to be accomplices, have also been arrested, but every one of the party either does not know or has refused to state where the new deposit is. V •