THE KAISER’S FORTUNE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 76, 1 April 1915, Page 2

THE KAISER’S FORTUNE.

INVESTED IN AMERICA. A GREAT BOND DEAL. Information reaches me from a semiofficial source (says an “Express” corcorrespondent in New York) that the Hohenzollern family have made heavy purchases of New York State bonds, issued last year, for use in the event of the Kaiser or his relatives being compelled to leave Germany. These bonds, for £10,200,000, cover canal and highway improvements and bear 4) per cent, interest. The sale was conducted by the State on the auction principle on January 21. 1914. A syndicate was formed by Messrs Kohn, Locb, and the iliiam A. Reid Company, and it secured the entire issue, offering 106.077 for each hundred-dollar bond and outbidding 495 competitors. Since then, my informant understands, large blocks %of amounts unknown have been transferred to the Hohenzollerns.

It is not known whether the transfer has been made since the outbreak of war, or whether the original bid was made really on behalf of the Hohenzollerns, who realised that war was inevitable, and thus prepared against personal financial disaster in advance. Great surprise was expressed on Wall Street at the time when it became known that the successful bid was so high, the inference being that a client had already been found prepared to take the bonds off the syndicate’s hands at a profit.

The fact that the transfer to the Hohenzollerns could be made a matter of private bookkeeping has not required large open market purchases. Thus attention has not been called to the imperial investment.