"MAN OF MYSTERY"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

"MAN OF MYSTERY"

Secrets Taken to the Grave

SIR BASIL ZAHAROFF'S STRANGE AND TRAGIC LOVE STORY

MYSTERIOUS even ill death, Sir Basil Zaharoff, legendary king of the armaments world, has reached hiE journey's end, states the News of the World of December 6. Borne in a motor-hearse across France from the hotel in Monte Carlo where death claimed him so suddenly in his 87th year, he was laid to rest beside his wife in the chapel on his estate at Balincourt, near Paris. Of all the huge crowd that gathered to sec him buried, only about 20, including his two stepdaughters, wore present at the last ceremony. Armed guards, patrolling the walls, kept the rest away. Fantastic Stories As a boy Basiloios Zaharoff was an urchin in the streets of Constantinople. At his death he was worth £!0.000,000 or more and held 29H decorations from 31 nations. At the height of his career he sat on 300 directorates.

ardent Greek patriot—of Britain's support of the disastrous Greek adventure in Asia Minor. It is said that this cost him from four to ten million pounds.

Whatever may have been the extent or the nature of his activities during the war, the conclusion of peace found him at the height of his wealth and power, with the Zaharoff legend complete.

He had luxurious apartments in the Avenue Hoche, Paris. He owned the wonderful Chateau de Balineourt, on the outskirts of Paris. He had a flat in London.

Among his treasures was a dinner service of beaten gold for 86 people which, however, was seldom used, as Sir Basil, in spite of the luxury with which lie surrounded himself, was a man of simple tastes, who loved to potter about his own kitchen superintending the cooking and devising of new dishes. Among all the legends of his life one thing stands out—his marriage in 192-1 and the 20 years of devotion that led up to it. His Love Story His bride was the Duchess de Villa, franca de los Caballeros, a daughter of the noble Spanish family of the Condea de -Maquiro.

A lifetime of legend lies between. Fantastic stories are told of a sinister figure with the piercing eyes and pointed beard of the mystery-man of fiction, flitting here and there, whispering into the ears of kings, shaking thrones and governments, selling arms everywhere to the highest bidder, a veritable merchant of death.

Many years ago they had fallen in love at first sight at a ball in Madrid. But the Duchess was already the wife of Francesco de Bourbon, Duke of Marchena, and a distant cousin of the King of Spain, having been married to him a week before her 17th birthday. The marriage was unhappy. The duke was a hopeless invalid, became mentally afflicted, and for 15 years was an in. mate of a Spanish institution. The lot of the young wife was worse than widow hood. She was brilliant and charming, Basil Zaharoff rich and bandsome. All they could do was to wait for each other. Twenty years was the waiting time, but their love remained firm and true until the death of her husband in 1923' set the duchess, free and enabled her to marry the man of her heart. The King of Spain had conferred upon her the title of Duchess de Villafranca de los Caballeros. and she and Sir Basil were married very quietly in September of the following year in the private' chapel of the Chateau de Balineourt. Shoemaker's Claim They lived in great happiness for two years. Then she died, and Zaharoff wai heartbroken. Pathetically through the years he took flowers to her tomb. Now, in fulfil-

And a story, too, is told of a strange and romantic love ... of a lifetime's devotion ... of two years' happiness . . . of death and a broken heart.

Nobody knows exactly where Zaharoff was born. The most credible story is that he was the son of a family of Greek refugees from Turkey, who lived for a while in Russia, changed their name from Zacharias to Zaharoff, returned ti an Anatolian village, and in 13-10 had a child whom they christened Basileios. Boy in >"ire Brigade

Zaharoff himself never revealed the truth about his birth and early upbringing. AH his life, indeed, he loved to foster the legend of the Man of Mystery. It seems fairly certain that one of his first jobs was that of a water-boy attached to the fire brigade in Constantinople. He became in turn a money changer in the bazaars, a hotel guide, and an interpreter. His career as an arms salesman is said to have began just after the RussoTurkish war of 1877-8, and in his first big deal he established the guiding principle of his life.

He sold a submarine —the first submarine, then a new world's wonder—to

the Government of Greece, liis own country.

ment of his last wish, he has been laicl to rest at her side. Although Sir Basil Zaharoff's fortune is estimated at over £10,000,000. no inkling of his will has yet been divulged, since he conducted ail his personal affairs himself.

He then went to Turkey, ancient enemy of the Greeks. He told the Turks: ''Greece has got a submarine. Hadn't you better have one or two?" Turkey bought two. Thenceforward he climbed rapidly, became agent for an arms firm, and seemed to be everywhere at once —in Spain, in Russia, in Paris, London, America and Mexico. Maxim Guns One of his early feats was the settlement of the Maxim gun crisis. Maxim, an American, had brought his new gun to be demonstrated at Vienna in competition with one of the Nordenfeldt guns. Zaharoff knew as well as Maxim knew that there was only one gun in it. Nordenfeldt's product was inferior. But, with friends which Maxim did not possess, and with a knowledge and fluency of tongues unequalled, Zaharoff managed to discredit Maxim's gun. Upon which, when the danger of competition had been safely eliminated, Nordetifeldt and Maxim amalgamated. It was the Great War, however, that really brought Zaharoff into the limelight. No one will ever know the exact influence he exerted.

It is regarded as likely, however, tha't his two stepdaughters may inherit. They are: — Mrs. Leopold Walford, wifs of Mr. L. H. G. Walford, company director, of Kensington Palace Gardens, London, and Mine. Angela de Bourbon, formerly Countess d'Ostorog. But a romantic element has been introduced by a 66-year-old London cobbler, Mr. Hyman Barnett Zaharoff, of South Kensington. Mr. Zaharoff claims that he is the lawful son of Sir Basil and that he has documentary evidence to support this claim.

His story is that Sir Basil was a Russian, his real name being Manel Sahar, and that he married a Russian woman in Lithuania, then part of Russia, ill 1870.

Mr. Zaharoff claims to be the only child of that marriage. One of his sons. Mr. Louin Zaharoff, a British subject, stated in an interview: "Sir Basil married my grandmother when he was young in Russia, and my father has copies of the marriage certificate and birth certificate."

One thing, at least, is certain. Although practically every belligerent State in the world sought his help, lie remained a firm friend of the Allies and a generous supporter of their cause.

He earned the name of Minister of Munitions to the Allies.' An army of cosmopolitan Secret Service men shadowed him.

He was, it was whispered, counsellor and friend to two British Prime Ministers —Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George. Honoured by Britain How great were his services during the war can be gauged from the fact that in 1918 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (an unexampled distinction for a foreigner), and two years later became a Knight Grand Cross of the British Empire. Oxford University honoured him with a degree, and France bestowed upon him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.

On the other hand, he was saddled with the responsibility—for he was an