HUN'S JEWEL ISLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1918, Page 3

HUN'S JEWEL ISLE.

INTERNED SWINDLER'S BOTTLE FULL OF DIAMONDS.

Among the adventurers of German origin who have passed from the byways of the City of London into the- safe keeping of an internment camp recently is a man known as Ilbert Edward Heyr, originator of a "treasure hunt," which ended disastrously for several people in 1914. Heyr, who was horn in Germany and lived most of his life in South Africa, had a bold imagination. During the winter of 1913-14 it was whispered in the city that one or two people were about to make a fortune by investment in a private syndicate formed to find a whisky bottle "full of diamonds." Here and there one could be found who had ventured £5 in the syndicate, and "would not part with it for £100" The value of the diamonds was variously estimated at one, or two, or three millions.

These stories had their origin in a yarn told by the German-South African Heyr. It began with a journej through the trackless desert of South-west Africa, and the discovery of a dying Boer. With his last ibreath the fioer confided in Heyr the story of the famous bottle, and the usual "plan." . The bottle contained the fruits of a lifetime of hoarding, and the plan pointed to an island off the coast of German Southwest Africa as the -hiding-place. There are, of course, laws framed in South Africa to prevent the. export of diamonds without payment of a tax. Hence the hold which Hevr's story had on the imagination of city speculators. The island, it was asserted, belonged neither to Great Britain nor to Germany, though either might lay claim to it were it known that .it contained a botUo full of diamonds. To secure the treasure a vessel must be found and equipped, armed if necessary; the bold Heyr must be given command, and the journey must be undertaken by men willing to risk anything" Such was the story. The fruits of it were seea wli«n a young rafts-of

wealth was .persuaded to borrow money on a reversionary interest in an estate, and finance the expedition. He lost both the money and the diamonds. Heyr went to South Africa just before the war, and again after war broke out. On both occasions he returned without tlio diamonds, but well furnished with money.