STRONG ROOM SECRETS.

Western Star, 26 March 1920, Page 4

STRONG ROOM SECRETS.

WHAT THE KAISER WANTED. Lying in a- strong room of a London bank or safe deposit are seven large steel-bound) boxes, which the exIvaiser would give a big gum of money to possess. As is well known, the great banking houses of London, have in their possession numerous ■ deedboxes containing securities that have lain uncovered for years. In a great number of cases the depositor has died, leaving no trace behind of the deed-boxes that he had carefully stowed away in his banker’s strong room; and without the authority of the safe custody receipt voucher nobody is allowed to interfere with the deposits that lay in the bank’s vaults. These seven deed-boxes are said to contain the manuscripts of the third and most important volume of the autobiographical memoirs of Prince Bismarck, together with a valuable collection of confidential papers and correspondence. They also contain several hundred letters written by the ex-Kaiser to the Iron Chancellor, and reports of various plots and intrigues at Vienna in which the Kaiser was mixed up. Bismarck intended to publish the third volume of his memoirs during his lifetime, but the Kaiser, greatly alarmed by the toue of bis first two volumes, threatened him with dire penalties. Bismarck managed, therefore, to smuggle the manuscripts of the third volume and his most precious papers out of the country over to England in order to save himself from the Kaiser’s wrath. But it is very evident that the Kaiser knew of what had happened to the documents, for frequently during his ; reign ho made efforts to recover them. It is known that during the war he offered a big reward to the airman who -succeeded in dropping a bomb on the bank where they were deposited.