FATAL FALL FROM PLANE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19991, 6 July 1928, Page 11

FATAL FALL FROM PLANE.

MILLIONAIRE BROWNED.

tfOOR OPENED IN MID-AIR

FATE OF CAPTAIN LOWENSTEIN. Australian and N.Z. Pre3S Association. (Received July 5. 7.25 p.m.) LONDON. July 5

The well-known Belgian financier and millionaire, Captain Alfred Lowcnstein, was dro vned as the result of a most remarkable accident in the air.

Ho left Croydon for Brussels by aeroplane, accompanied by his personal staff, besides a pilot and a mechanic. While the plane was over the sea between Dunkirk and Ostend Captain Lowenstoin apparently opened a wrong door and fell out and was drowned.

It is recalled that he offored to lend to the Belgian Government £10,000,000 without interest, to stabilise the franc.

Captain Loewenstein's secretary, who was on beard the plane, says Captain Loewenstein left his companions to visit the toilet room. Owing to his prolonged absence a search was made and the room was found to be empty. Apparently Captain Loewenstein, by a tragic mistake, opened an adjoining door in the sido of the hull.

It is stated that Captain Lowenstoin had for some months showed signs of illhealth. This was attributed to his unceasing activities. It is believed that ho had been considerably disappointed when the Belgian and French Governments rejected his offers of loans.

Captain Alfred Lowenstein had been termed " the mystery, millionaire," as little was known of his antecedents. His ago was 51. It is said that his father was a moderately well-to-do Jewish banker in Brussels. The son took over the business, but it was only after the outbreak of the war, when, with many other Belgians, he fled to England, that he began to branch out and build up the big fortune he controlled. " Lov/enstein has a finger in every pie in Europe," is the way his extensive enterprises and interests were described by the few who were aware of his activities. Tn October, 1926, ho offered to lend the Belgian Government £10,000,000 for two years, free of interest, in return for certain concessions. Belgium saw fit to refuse the loan, for Captain Lowenstein's offers were described as " hedged about with conditions which robbed them of their patriotic gestures." However, the offer turned tho spotlight of publicity on him.

This member of the picturesque trio of post-war millionaires " succeeded the late Hugo Stinnes as master of big business in Europe," and compared in legendary power with Sir Bazil Zaharoff, " the man who makes wars and unmakes kings." Captain Lowenstein was director of more than 100 corporations in Germany, Belgium.and France. He owned manganese iron mines in Silesia, steel furnaces in the north of Spain, coal properties in the Saar Basin and the Ruhr. Several of the most productive marble collieries in Italy were indirectly under his control. In addition, he attended sessions of the Belgian State Bank and banks in Holland.

He had private apartments or hotels in Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Barcelona, Rome and Constantinople. An army of servants was kept busy in these residences, for the master might descend any moment of the day or night. He visited Canada in May last, to organiso some company, but particulars were not disclosed. Ho had a contract with Imperial Airways, Limited, under which four large planes, fitted out as business offices, were at his disposal. They flew regularly between Biarritz, where he had several villas, and London. ,