A NOTABLE CAREER

Hokitika Guardian, 9 November 1929, Page 2

A NOTABLE CAREER

SIR BASIL ZAHAROFF, THE HIDDEN GIANT, About Sir Basil Zaharoff, .the international financier who. has been called “ the sleeping partner of the world,” there have been two great .mysteries—who he is and what he does. Surprising disclosures are 1 made by a German financial journalist, . Dr. Richard Lewisohn, in a fascinating book,. “ The Man Behind the Scenes : The Career of Sir Basil Zaharoff.” Sir Basil Zaharoff, the. son of poor Greek parents, was born -80 years ago in a mountain village of Anatolia, in Asia Minor. The family., had suffered from 'Turkish persecution and, fled to Odessa. Zaharoff received a fair education at the English school in Constantinople, acting as a guide to foreign tourists in his., spare time. He entered the business of his . uncle, a Constantinople merchant, and was taken into partnership. The sequel is one of the strangest episodes of his strange career. • There was a breach. Zaharoff went to England and wasi arrested on a charge of theft brought by his uncle. He was tried and acquitted; in a,statement which he made later in Athens to .his friend and patron, .M, Etienne Skuludis, afterwards 'Prime Minister of Greece, he described how in the last moments before the..'trial he made a dramatic discovery in the pocket of an old fur • coat of a.'letter proving his innocence and ' demonstrating his uncle’s perfidy. “He emerged as the moral victor,”..says M. Skuludis in his preface to this book. Versions of' this story, observes Dr. Lewisohn, still circulate in the capitals of Europe. A distortion followed Zaharoff to Athens, where he next sought his fortune. He was cold-shouldered. Then his - chance came. He was appointed agent for Nordenfelt, the armaments firm, in the Balkans.

ARMING THE NATIONS. ( His first big stroke was to sell a submarine—the first submarine sold—to Greece. That was nearly 50 years ago. ,Soon after he sold two submarines to .Turkey. , He was Vickers’s agent and a large —how large nobody knows : “ He continued to be a traveller.

' Rushing through Europe in an express train to provide nations, which would | .perhaps be fighting each other on the i .following day, with the same weapons •—that was Basil Zaharoff’s business. I His manner to all countries was charm■mg and zealous, though he did not - always charge the same price.” His best market was Russia. In ■ .1913 he secured the contract for the i construction of an enormous arsenal at i.Zarizyn on the Volga.. But still his ' name was scarcely known to the public, jthough in July 1914 he became a Com- : mander of the Legion of Honour. His '.G.C.B. followed four years later. He was 65 when the war began : “ Men like Zaharoff, whose international relations were widely ramified, : ,were in particular demand, for they .could move more easily than official .representatives, could act as agents, make proposals, establish friendships, and weave new threads between the .Allied States and those which were still neutral. . . Zaharoff was an adept at operating behind the scenes, and knew both the technique and the geography of that- . underground activity .which was everywhere becoming an important adjunct to high politics.”

ILL-FATED EXPEDITION. \ He had long supported Veniselos. .He now organised and financed a, widespread system of propaganda, .provided, says his biographer, a million and a .half francs for the establishment of '.Agence Radio, the Balkan news agency, bought newspaers, and largely fin .anced the Veniselist movement for “ national defence.” At the end of the war he was at the zenith of his power. Then his judgment failed : ' “ His life in the north, ,;his work .behind the scenes, had refined Znharoff’s sense of touch, but at heart lie .remained the impetuous youth lie had .been in his adventurous days. No undertaking was too great or too dangerous for him.” He was the man behind the Greek .offensive against the Turks in Asia Minor Questions were asked about bin. in the House of Commons. Dr. I.ewisohn attributes to Zaharoff’s illfated intervention the fall of Mr Lloyd George’s Government.

But he had lost heavily: “ It is said that the unsuccessful issue of the Asia Minor expedition cost .Zaharoff half his fortune. Though this is certainly an exaggeration, his losses, even in relation to his wealth, were

huge. Deliveries of arms on credit anti money loans were no longer possible.” Above' all, the vast organisation that .he had built up side by side but independent' of Vickers was now meaningless. THE MAN IN THE BATH-C-HAIR. He is old now and he has retired: “ Basil Zaharoff has to admit that a servant takes him about in Monte .Carlo in a bath-chair. All that is left to him is to look around from the hotel terrace. • . Whoever approaches him uninvited can stili receive a blowing up. He stdl has strength* enough for that.”