Situation Saved by Profiteers'
Absorption of Over-Supply Paris, July 6.
Paris leveller: ing of the resulted from the dumping of about a billion francs worth of stolen, confiscated and smuggled jewels on the Paris market. Mr. Leonard Rosenthal, the jewel expert employed to value the Hapsburg treasure, says the collapse in the precious stone market was prevented only by the war's creation of enough profiteers to absorb the over-supply.
This flood of jewels, Mr. Rosenthal says, came in three waves. The first was brought by feeing Russian aristocrats who smuggled out family fortunes in their hair or sewn in the linings of their clothing. Sometimes valuable stones were swallowed to be recovered by the use of emetics, and were even embedded in the flesh. One Russiiin prince sold for Frs. 3,500,000 a group of emeralds his ancestors bought two centuries ago for Frs. 480,000. One of the Tsar's emeralds was sold in Paris for 32 times its cost. A Russian duke, congratulated upon selling his jewels for Frs. 10,000,000, replied, "How can I live on Frs. 50,000 a year?" His pre-war annual expenditures in Petrograd varied between Frs. 12,000,000 and 15,000,000.
The second wave consisted of jewels valued at Frs. 300,000,000 to 400,000,000 confiscated by the Soviets. The third wave was the dispersion of the collections of kings and_ kinglets, princes and dukes of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Hapsburg Court furnished the treasure of 10 century ies and for this Emperor Charles' agents asked Frs. 50,000,000, but. took between Frs. 25,000,000 jand 30,000,000.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.