QUEEN OF SIAM'S PEARLS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 302, 18 June 1912, Page 8

QUEEN OF SIAM'S PEARLS

ROMANTIC STORY (FROM BANGKOK. A romantic story of the Queen of Siam's lost pearls, valued at £IO,OOO, which were stolen 'three years ago in transit between London and Bangkok, was told at Bow Street Police Court last month. Paul de Bosek, aged 31, formerly the wharf superintendent at Bangkok, was arrested on the steps of the General Post Office, London, and was then committed to take his trial in the Straits Settlements on a charge of unlawfully receiving two of the pearls, knowing them to have been stolen. The wooden box from which the pearls were taken had been sent back from Siam, and was produced in court. It , was carefully examined by de Bosek from his place in the dock. This box was sealed at the side with impressive red wax seals, which were still unbroken, and it had been bound with iron strips and carefully screwed down before it left London. 1 Bis Excellency Chong Qua, the King of Siam's Chamberlain, on April 13, 1909, ordered a rope of pearls for the Queen of Siam from the Association of Diamond Merchants, of Charing Cross, and the pearls had been securely packed in this strong box for despatch. The pearls, in a case, were placed inside, the zine inner lining was soldered up, the screws in the solid lid were fixed, the iron clasps fastened down, and the box was sealed.

When the box reached the Queen of Siam it was apparently as secure as when it left London. But when it was opened the pearls were gone, and only the empty jewel case was left. The top of the lid had been carefully split, the screws on one side removed, the zinc lining cut, and the jewels removed, without breaking a I single seal. A dramatic, statement, signed by de |Bosek, was read in court. It ran:— "About the middle of June, 1909, I I was in the Siamese Government gambling house at Bangkok, with some other Europeans. As usual, I met in this den several of the Chinese clerks and others belonging to the steamers. I left the gambling house about 8 p.m., a winner of someof some 200 ticals," "A tical is 6d," explained de Bosek cheerfully from the dock. "It was usually known," his statement' continued, "that I, as wharf superintend-j ent, lent money on the security of trading goods, and, while at the gambling house I was asked by one of the 'kranis' (steamer clerks) for a loan of 100 ticals. "I told him that if he gave me security I could advance him a couple of thousand. At about 9 p.m. I received a j visit from the man in question. He asked me to make him an advance. He j had security, he said, in the shape of a j small box of pearls.

"I looked at these and believed that I would not risk too much by lending him £7O or £BO, and so, after a lot of haggling, I agreed to a loan of 1000 ticals, handing him 920. I received a receipt signed 'Siang Heng.' "The following morning he came to my office and wanted me to make a furf ther advance. This I refused to do, as I had not seen the pearls in the daylight. "He then asked me whether I would sell them to him. When I asked him for his authority to sell them he admitted they were stolen. I wanted to know the name of the owner, but he said he did not know, and I understood it was paTt of a cargo. I gave him another 500 ticals, and the pearls became mine by right of purchase.