BISMARCK’S MEMOIRS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19848, 17 January 1920, Page 12

BISMARCK’S MEMOIRS.

SECRETS OF A BANK’S STRONGROOM. Lying j n the strongroom of a London bank or safe deposit, are seven large steel-bound boxes which the ex-Kaiser would give a big sum of monev to possess (says “Pearson’s Weekly”). As is well known, the great banking houses of London have in their possession numerous deed boxes containing securities that have laid unclaimed for years. In a great number of cases tho depositor has died, leaving no trace behind of tho deed boxes that he had carefully stowed away in Ins banker’-! strongroom; and without the authority of tho safe custody receipt voucher, nobody is allowed to interfere with tho deposits that lay in tho bank’s vaults. Theso seven deed boxes aro said to contain tho manuscripts of tho third and most important volume of tho antohlographical memoirs of Princo Bismarch, together with a valuable collection of confidential papers and corrcspondeuee. They also contain several hundred letters written by the exKaiser to tho Iron-Chancellor, and reports of various plots and intrigues at Vienna in-which tho Kaiser °was mixed upBismarck intended to publish the third volume of his memoirs during his lifetime, but.the Kaiser, greatly alarmed by tho tone of bis first two volumes, threatened him with dire (penalties.’ Bismarck managed, therefore, to smuggle tho manuscripts of tho third volume, and his most precious papers, out of tho country over to England Ln older to save himself from tho Kaiser’s wrath. But it is very evident that the Kaiser know of what had happened to the documents, for frequently during his reign he made efforts to recover them. It is known that during the war he offered^ a big reward (o the airman who sius-oeucil iu dropping a bomb on tho bank ’.vh-ro tl:ey were deposited.