PRINCESS IN PRISON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 8 (Supplement)

PRINCESS IN PRISON.

ON SWINDLING CHARGES. One of the maids of honour of the late Empress of Russia is lying in prison in Berlin. £hc is the daughter of General SkatiatJne and Princess Lubanow, and was for some years regarded as the. most beautiful young woman at the Russian Court. Sho married a Russian general, but the union was not a happy one and was eventually dissolved, when she left Russia and settled down in Germany. There she married a retired army surgeon, Dr. Berrisch, of Bonn, and, as hor parents made her a very generous allowance, the couplo were able to live a luxurious life. Shortly before the war Dr. Berrisch died, and hi* widow continued to live in Bonn during the war. She experienced the greatest difficulty in obtaining money from Russia, however, and eventually had to take a position as interpreter in prison camps. As a result of the revolution her parents lost oil their property, and at the end of tlie war, her services as interpreter Wing no longer required, she came to Berlin and frequonted Russian circles, where she managed to borrow considerable sums of money, which were never paid back. From families which received and helped her also she Ktole considerable quantities of valnablo fu,:s and jewels. She managed to extract 28,000 marks from a Russian general, and later she persuaded a wealthy Russian merchant to entrust to her his fortune, which was in Indian rupees. This money sho changed into marks and spont, it. When funds again ran short sho committed another big theft, and went to Cologne to turn tho goods into money. When she returned from Cologne, however, detectives were waiting at the Berlin station to arrest her.