RUSSIA’S ROYAL ROMANCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17217, 7 December 1923, Page 6

RUSSIA’S ROYAL ROMANCE.

FROM WEALTH TO PENURY. (By tV. A. GARRICK in Sydney “ Sunday Tittles.”) When Bolshevism stalked through once-mighty Russia. loosening the leashes which held the savage dogs of bloody revolution. and gripping greedily all its hands could hold, hundreds of the royal coteries clustered around the seat of Czardom fled in terror to the four corners of the earth. Hundreds more were slain. One of these fugitives was Eggert, Prince of the house of Volkonsky, son of the Admij of the Baltic Fleet. ‘Fleeing to France, he escaped to Norway, and thence to the ice-bound expases of the North. then down through the East to China. Today he is in Sydney, the bearer of a tale unique in the annals of romance, a millionaire prince with neither coin nor crown, an attache of the Czar eking out an existence with grassshears. By way of preface it is interesting to note that a. story in last week’s “ Sunday Times ” relative to the ** holding-up ” of Monte Carlo by a Russian Admiral was the means of Volkonsky disclosing the identity he claims. He informed the “ Sunday Times ” yesterday (November 10) that he was. at a loss to understand the origin of the report of the Monte Carlo incident. He was informed that the “ Sunday Times ” was represented at a social gathering at which he related it, and then gave these picturesque details of his chequered life. M hen the revolution first assumed serious proportions, the family escaped, but not until the elder of the two princes had been murdered. Previous to that Eggert wis a student at the Royal Nav;l College at Kronstadt, and a frequently honoured guest at the Imperial Palace, Petrograd. Thev were separated—-father, mother, a princess and Prince Volkonsky They arranged to meet in Marseilles, but though the young prince searched diligently for months he was unable to learn more than t'.m fact that father—under an assumed name—had deposited five million roubles with a French bank. All efforts to release that money, or to locate the family have since failed. AVANDERINGS OF ROMANCE. Then, in the latter part of 1918. the prince went to Cambridge University,' thera meeting the Crown Prince of Siam, with whom he formed a- warm friendship. Returning again to trailce the following year, be resumed the search for his family. But it was all futile. In his search he met «\ French prince named Marat arid a Viscount Lore. They decided to go north, and so from Marseilles they travelled in a cargo steamer to Norway, then to Finland and Helsingfors, where they signed on as members of the crew of a fishing boat bound for the Arctic. They spent some time in the White Sea. but even here the clutching hand of Bolshevism reached and thev were arrested and sent to Siberia " PRISONERS IN SIBERIA. Volkonsky is guarded in bis references to the horrors of this hell of the nortbland. All he would Kay was that they were given nothing but salt water for two weeks .at the end of which period a Russian commissar aided them to escape and to join a friendly band or Russians, who were organising an expedition to Mongolia. They changed their/ names, and some weeks later, after countless privations and horrible experiences, reached Tibet. Here they were .befriended by an American miseioner. who arranged for thei r despatch to Shanghai. There the roving triumvirate parted, and the prince secured a job as engineer on the' American car-o steamer West Iran and sailed on her to Hongkong.

WITH SIAM'S ROYALTY. The Russian Ambassador afforded fum protection as far as SlanV. and his friendship with the Crown Prince was resumed. For two- months he was his' guest at the palace- An Englishman staying at the palace was Lord Hamilton, and the peace of the little kingdom was the first he had experienced since Russia begun to run red. One day a party, including the Crown Prince, Lord Hamilton and Prince Volkonsky, set out on a ticer,hunting expedition in .the treacherous vungles north of Rangoon. Volkonskybecame .separated from the main party, and while watching game-disturbing rockets fired by the boys in the vanguard, a tigress, with two cubs following, leaped at him from behind a high thicket and buried its fangs in his left upper-arm. He was borne to the ground, helpless. But a bullet from Lord Hamilton’s rifle killed the tigress The meanwhile had scampered away like frightened kittens. HIS DUCHESS IN SYDNEY. The Prince says he was in hospital tor months, and then received a cable from Sydney—signed by his fiancee, Duchess Kootusova—asking him to leave for Australia and meet her. here. In Burma he had been given, as valet., a native youth, and the morning he was to leave his hotel at Bangkok to board the Marella for Sydney, the boy mysteriously disappeared with all the Prince’s belongings and over £SOO- - however. his tickets .were in a pocket of his dress suit, which he bad worn at a dance the previous night, and he was obliged to wear the dress clothes until he had boarded the ship. .Just before reaching Sydney, nearly three months ago, he developed smallpox. This was resixmsible for a month’s quarantine at North Head. In Sydney he was faced by tho mystery of the disappearance of the Duchess, but since lias learned that she sailed for America, via New Zealand. Meanwhile the homeless Prince is penniless. For the past few weeks be has been eking out a bare existence. He lias executed one or two miniature sculpture works. Hia education embraced the Arts, and he lias visited Mr Nelson Illingworth on several occasions“CZAß STTLL LIVES.” Volkonsky speaks English intelligibly. but bis French is faultless, and shortly, he says, he will leave for Auckland to join General Tonoff. a late member of the Russian Imperial Staff, wlio. like himself, has been forced by the natio'nal catastrophe to travel the world. This friendless young Russian declares that the Czar and his still | live. He declines to disclose the rea- | sons for bis belief, but affirms that the ! Czar's daughter the Grand Duchess | Tatiana, is at present in Los Angeles, T»h*re cUe will shortly marry an American mill ive.