BIG DIAMOND HAUL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 727, 29 July 1929, Page 2

BIG DIAMOND HAUL

, j ' FOREIGN MAIL ROBBED ■ I PEBBLES FOR PRECIOUS , 1 STONES Dealers in piecious stones in Lon- . don and abroad are discussing with bewilderment a jewel robbery that ranks as the most startling reporteii in recent years. The booty consists o£ diamonds i estimated to be worth £55,000, which disappeared most mysteriously whik being sent from Loureneo Mangles, Portuguese East Africa, to two firm ■’ in Antwerp. They were enclosed it 0 two packages, but when those at l - rived at Antwerp they were found tt contain worthless pebbles. Tbi , packages, to outward appearance were perfectly intact, and the puzch to be solved is how the substitntio: I was made. 1 From the few details of the affai i. 1 known in Loudon at present it tP ’’ | pears that the diamonds were dis ; patched on a mail-boat which let Loureneo Marques on April 10. T& 1 value of the parcels would undoub edly have been declared at that pot ° The robbery was not discovered unt ’• the other day, when the Belgh police were immediately notified, T® s unusual course was then taken «j : r calling over to Antwerp an Englis i. assessor, Mr. John W. Bell, of L " l _t Bell and Co., London, to confer wit Mr. E. Long Maddox, a Paris specie if ist, who is well versed in the way *1 of diamond tlyeves. The meetini ~y place of the two was kept a clos ft secret. iga Only last January a similar ijj bery, involving a loss of £15"" . ’ woi-th of diamonds, which also it appeared in transit from port to pet caused a sensation. In that casett i- gems were being sent from MesstBaekenholz, in Ceylon, to SingapOy n and upon arrival at Singapore “ ; package was found to be It is suggested the same gangE* ' be responsible for both roboem; The theory is advanced that a F 4-; '2 of international crooks have est»j lished a train of confederates * every city in Europe who have ■>" able to gain access to the pacMF' rt during transmission through thoP® v. Probably the thieves in| the **[/ '2 affair travelled on the boat wet l- conveyed the diamonds from ls South African port. h , y_ The South African police “* i.! been notified, and are conducting vestigations in their own cou t y Meanwhile the Belgian and ■y Continental police are trying to _ cover whether anything haPP en . the packages during a possib.e o shipment. The assistance i Jii i land Yard may he invoked a, I an endeavour to discover "he 1 diamonds reached this country-