GERMANY'S SHARE OF POLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16847, 11 May 1918, Page 2 (Supplement)

GERMANY'S SHARE OF POLAND

PROPOSALS TO AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. The Leipziger Volkszeitung. reproduces from a Wai'saw newspaper the German Government's conditions for the solution of the Polish question, which formed the basis of the fruitless Austro-German negotiations of last November. According to this, Germany demanded that: (1) Polish railways and State property should become the property of the German State. (2) That the Polish State should take over £500.000,000 of the German war debt, now nearly £6.200,000,000, and (3) The north-western frontier of Poland should be the Narew line, with the exception of Modlin, which, as well as Ozestochova, Bendzin, and Olkusza, ehoiHd be incorporated with Germany.

WONDERFUL YELLOW DIAMOND. One of the finest and largest diamonds in the world has been presented to the Red Cross sale by the Diamond Syndicate of London. The stone, which is of the tint known as " pale canary," weighs 205 carats and is practically twice as large as the Kohinoor (106 carats). It is highly phosphorescent, and after brilliant illumination emits the rays it has absorbed, thus becoming self-luminous in the dark. The stone, which originally weighed 370 carats, and was discovered in 1901 in the De Beers Mines in Griqualand West, has been cut in very original and beautiful form at Amsterdam, a feature of the cutting being that a Maltese cross is visible in the facets. This peculiarity is only shared by the Pitt diamond. Some idea of its value may be gained from the fact that a yellow diamond of 86 carats, belonging to the crown jewels of Austria, is valued at £110,000, and from the model of this one, is far inferior to the " Red Cross" diamond.