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Zaharoff the Armaments King ZAHAROFF THE ARMAMENTS KING by Robert Neumann TRANSLATED BY R. T. CLARK READERS' UNION LIMITED GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD "Zaharoff the Armaments King" was first published in England in 1935 and a new impression followed in 1936. Robert Neumann has, for Readers' Union edition (1938), brought his Zaharoff "legend" up to date and revised various parts of the text. To Readers' Union edition has been added a portrait of Zaharoff. ZAHAROFF POINT This edition, for Readers' Union members only, is possible by co-operative reader demand and by the sacrifice of ordinary profit margins by all concerned. Such conditions cannot apply under the normal hazards of book production and distribution. Reader­ commentaries on Zaharoff the Armaments King will be found in July 1938 issue of Readers' News given free with this volume. Membership of Readers' Union can be made at any booksellers' shop. MADE 1938 IN GREAT BRITAIN. PRINTED BY C. TINLING AND CO., LTD., LIVERPOOL, LONDON AND PRESCOT, FOR READERS' UNION LTD. REGISTERED OFFICES: CHANDOS PLACE BY CHARING CROSS, LONDON, ENGLAND. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE THE DIFFICULTIES OF A BIOGRAPHER 9 1. ON THE TRACK OF A YOUNG MAN FROM THE EAST 19 A Piece of Universal History-A Piece of Family History-The Child is Father of the Man-The Case of Haim Sahar of Wilkomir-Sir Basil Casanova-The Detective at Work-The First Conquest of Athens n. DEAD MEN OVERTURE 79 The Duel with Mr. Maxim-A Stay in Russia­ Cherchez la femme-Clouds over South America -In the Prime of Life-a portrait-Maxims for Budding Armament Kings-The Duel with a Gentleman from Le Creusot-The Noise of Battle-In the Paris Press-Spring Interlude, 191 4 Ill. ALMOST A MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURE 162. Chance and mischance-The Second Conquest of Athens-Merely Fiction IV. THE VOICE BEHIND THE THRONE 194 A Little Study in Human Nature-The Invasion of France-Blood versus Oil-Unknown Motives -The Private War of a Millionaire-Retreat V. NATIONS AS PAWNS 2.41 Divide et impera-And Germany ?-One Father- land less-The milliard-pound Peace VI. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF AN OLD GENTLE- MAN 2.65 A Principality for a Woman-Lies about Zaharoff -The end of Zaharoff SOURCES INDEX THE DIFFICULTIES OF A BIOGRAPHER PROBLEM: To write the biography of a man who was still alive not so many months ago. He is just as moral, just as immoral as any other, neither devil nor saint, and if there is a something which makes him different from other creatures who are greedy for food and plunder, it is no more than this-that he has done his gathering ofbooty more successfully and more cleverly. His plunder has been won on the grand scale, and it is only because his success has been on that scale that his cunning, trickery, and unscrupulousness seem to have something of grandeur about them. His life is an adventurous one, but not a whit more adventurous than the times in which it was lived. His biographer is faced with extraordinary difficulties. The archives of ministries and embassies and those of the great armaments firms as well are kept sternly under lock and key, and to describe how this or that document printed in this book came into the hands of the biographer would need a book in itself. Add to this that the victim ofthis biography will not "stand still" like the victim ofthe photographer. He did, and somehow still does even after his death, everything he could to confuse the picture. You ask for his birth certificate. Alas I a fire destroyed the church registers. You search for a document concerning him in the archives of the Vienna War Office. The folder is there, but it is empty; the document has vanished. After all sorts of difficulties you obtain permission to inspect the papers ofa law case. The papers are requested, but, alas I no one in the office can find them. He buys a chateau in France and-how does the story of the editor of the Documents politiques go ?­ "Sir Basil Zaharoff at once buys up all the picture postcards in the villages ofBalincourt, Avrincourt, and the rest which show the chateau, and strictly prohibits any more photographs being taken." His desire to avoid publicity goes as far as that. And again add this, that at a certain epoch in his career Sir Basil himself put out the most amazing stories ofhis adventures that 10 ZAHAROFF: THE ARMAMENTS KING you could imagine-in order to attract attention and arouse interest (a process not inimical to business) and also in order to confuse the trail. Can one say more? There are lies told to Zaharoff's discredit; there are lies told to his credit; and there are also lies for which there is no other explanation than the vanity of the man who told them. The result was that to write this book a new procedure had to be found, a method very different from the usual methods of the ordinary literary biographer. To track down the facts required the diligence not so much ofa writer as ofa detective. Where documents were obtainable they have been reproduced. Where witnesses had to be questioned their evidence is given as far as possible in their own words, so that the reader can himself make up his own mind about their trustworthiness; and that is the more necessary as a whole series of witnesses only gave evidence on the strict understanding that their names would not be mentioned in this book. As to the wit­ nesses themselves, two types may be distinguished: those who knew something and did not wish to tell, and those who knew little or nothing at all and wanted to tell a lot-from sheer communicativeness, from a desire to play a part in the drama, or simply out ofpure good nature in order to make the task of the wretched author who had to write a book as easy as possible. As an example of the first type, take a short extract from the conversation with a former Prime Minister of Greece, a man who for twenty years has been one of the leading figures in Greek politics, and to whose evidence I shall return time and again. (This man who in this book is called "Witness D." is not M. Venizelos, and I may as well say this at once and so avoid misunderstandings. The interview took place, as, by the way, did a good deal ofthe interviews reproduced in this book, before Zaharoff's death.) Like all conversations, this one began with his expressing the wish that his name should not be mentioned, and with my assurance that it would not be mentioned. Then it went on : THE DIFFICULTIES OF A BIOGRAPHER II I. Your Excellency is said to be a very close friend of Sir Basil Zaharoff. HE. What do you mean by a very close friend? I only had lunch with him once. Oh, there is nothing in sitting at table with him : he looks quite a gentleman. I. What about 1875, Your Excellency? Do you remember what was said then about Basil Zaharoff's time in the Garbola prison in Athens in the paper Mikra Ephemeris? HE. Mikra Ephemeris? The first time I ever heard of it. And what's this about Garbola ? There's no prison of that name in Athens. I. All right, Your Excellency. But in the Great War? In the position which you held in these days you can't have helped being brought into relations with Sir Basil. HE. Basil Zaharoff was never once in Athens during the War. He stayed in London and Paris. I. Very good, Your Excellency. But after the Great War? Didn't Sir Basil Zaharoff finance Greece's war with Turkey? HE. Financed it? He never spent a pound on it. He just thought it rather fine that people should think that he could lose so much. I. But surely that isn't in keeping with his well-known dis­ like of publicity ? HE. bislike I He would rather be known as a mauvais s"!Jet than not be known at all. I. But you must be aware that other Greek statesmen have thought very differently of Basil Zaharoff. Skuludis, for example. HE. Skuludis never was a statesman. He was nothing but a lackey of the King. I. All right, Your Excellency. Would you tell me something of the row between Basil Zaharoff and Venizelos ? HE. (Suddenly speaking with passion). It was a mighty big and bitter row. I. You are a Venizelist, Your Excellency? HE. Of course I am. 12 ZAHAROFF: THE ARMAMENTS KING You see. This really able and farseeing man actually in the end was able to contribute something to the character-sketch of Sir Basil Zaharoff. Luckily, there were other prominent Greeks who were more communicative; we shall meet them later on. This "Witness D." is of the uncommunicative type. The task with the communicative is even more difficult. Whom should one believe? I pick at random from my notes and find: WITNESS RO. • • • and besides, he is the beastliest miser I have ever met. I used to feed with him day after day in the Cafe de Paris at Monte Carlo. He never took any­ thing but a bottle of tonic water. Price, one franc fifty. He used to pay it out on the table in copper, never left even a sou as tip, took his overcoat off the peg and went off. WITNESS P. • • • or look at that picture on the wall, or that one.
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