THE GIRL OF MYSTERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20330, 11 February 1928, Page 11

THE GIRL OF MYSTERY

GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA. DECLARED TO BE AN IMP 3STER. fFrC'fls Association—By Telcgrapb —Copyright. J LONDON, February 10. The war correspondent, Mr F. A, Mackenzie, in an article in the Daily News, declares that the peasant girl who is claiming to bo the Grand Duchess Anastasia is an imposter. Her claims were originally advanced in 1923, when they were rejected by leading Romanoff survivors. Mr Mackenzie twice visited Ekaterinburg and saw the scene of the Czarist murders. He examined the Communist records, vvhich stated that Anastasia feigned death, but the soldiers accompanying the murderers smashed her head in with rifle butts. The Daily Mail, in view of the possibility of Anastasia’s claim to the Czar’s fortune, points out that besides the considerable amount the Bolshevists confiscated, several millions are lying in foreign banks, including English and American. The Czar s income from all sources in 1913 was estimated at £6,000,000. The private fortune inherited from his father whs increased by judicious investments. The Daily I fail’s Berlin correspondent says that supporters and opponents of Anastasia will meet face to face next week at the hearing of a libel actio., by the editor of the Extreme Nationalist i paper, the Nachtausgabe, against the [ editor of the Taglicue Rundschau, Dr i Stresemann’s organ. The Nachtausgabc, in a series of articles, favoured Anastasia, but suddenly recanted, declaring that she was merely a Mceklcburg 1 farm girl. The Taglichn Rundschau, which consistently championed Anastasia, immediately declared that the Nachtausgabe’s volte face was due to a handsome payment to a member of the staff by the Grand Duke Hesse, the late Czar s brother. , The Tagliche’s editor announces that he will bring evidence providing that the Grand Duke Hesse actually made a payment. —A. and N.Z. Cable. SOVIET AUTHORITIES’ VIEW. THE STORY RIDICULED. MOSCOW, February 9. (Received Feb. 10, at 11 p.m.) The Soviet authorities ridicule the story persistently circulated that the Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the Czar, is still alive. They state that the whole Russian Royal Family is extinct. The official list of those executed at Ekaterinburg in 1918 includes Anastasia. —A. and N.Z. Gable.