COCOS ISLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 12 November 1932, Page 6

COCOS ISLAND

TREASURE FIND DENIED. WELLINGTON, November 7. A writer m the “Dominion” last week stated:— Some three* months ago a cable item appeared in your paper announcing the discovery of hidden treasure in the Cocos Island amounting in value t 0 some £12,01)0,000. As I knew the leader of the party, a Mr J. E. Leckie, of Vancouver, and as I had been asked by the late Mr E. C. E. Mills of this city, whom I met in London in 1912, to join an expedition to search for the same treasure, 1 wrote to Mr u.eckie congratulating him o» his success. By last mail I received a reply from Cocos Island saying that there was no truth in the. report, and that the rumour emanated from San Francisco, and gained publicity despite all efforts to stop it. It will be remembered that tiie story was embellished with a wealth cf detail, and that Sir Malcolm Campbell, the Speed. King, who had conducted a prior search for the treasure, had expressed his regrets at missing the spot where it was supposed to have been found, by a ■$ few yards! Mr Leckie say he is still continuing the search, and that an English expedition is also at ■ the island, •equipped with a divining rod, on the same quest.

There is no doubt that there is a considerable amount of treasure lying buried on the island somewhere, and is would appear that, far from abandoning further attempts, there is always some party ready to continue the search, in lithe hope of locating the spot. There have been at least 20 expeditons to' the island at different times, but s 0 tar, all. including the Mills party, have been unsuccessful. This is a well-known “treasure island, and full accounts of the burial of the treasure (.mostly church ornaments, and Spanish coins taken from Lima, Peru, at the time of the declaration of independence of that country fom Spain) will be found in any autliorative work or) Piracy and Hidden Treasure. I met in London a descendant of one of the pirates alleged to have buried the treasure, who claimed to have a sketch of the site, and it was on this infoi motion that Mr J’.-Jls conducted his unsuccessful seaicii.

Contrary to the idea held in this country, the Cocos Island in question lias no connection whatever with the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean where the Emden was destroyed by the Sydney. It- 1 is a small island about 500 miles off the coast of C’osta Rica in the Pacific, and belongs to that country. I thought your readers, whose 1 curiosity may have been whetted by the report of the find, might like to know the truth of the story.