Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-01
Some Think 1t Undignified for
Rich Duke of Bedford to
Make Sale.
PROPERTY IN HIS FAMILY
SINCE NORMAN CONQUEST
Little Is Known of Mr.. Mallaby-
Deeley, Purchaser Of VAL
liable Lands.
special correspondence of The star.


LONDON, December 20. 1918
When the Duke Of Bedford sold his
Tavistock estates people were sur
prised, and seemed to think it undig-
nifled for a rich duke to carry out such
commercial deal. When, after the
budget of 1909 he Invested himself of
great Fenland estates, selling some of
the land to tenant farmers, and get
ting good prices generally, he gave a
text for both tory and radical ora
ton on land taxes, small holdings and
the rest. But new, when he sells the
great Covent Garden property In the
heart Of London - nineteen acres.
twenty-one streets and the sites for
four theaters. the opera house, Bow
street police station, the National
Sporting Club. Covent Garden markets
and the market rights and charter, the
ground rents of hundreds of proper
ties, many with leases nearly ripe"
and such tit-bits as private boxes in
every theater on the estate-London is
almost breathIess at the news.
The biggest land deal in the world
1t is said to be, and though the papers
pretend to know that the price was
about $15.000.000, every man about
town is ready to swear it could not be
under .I4 $3o,ooOOoo and ought to be
But there is more in the transaction
besides it's price to impress I-onuoners
Even Bloomsbury (the American board
ing house quarter), largely another
Bedford estate, does not seem SO
closely associated with the ducal fam
lily as Covent Garden. The first Bed
ford gained it in his share of the
lands of Protector Somerset. Charles
the Second gave them a charter for a
III xxy1,a
was then really garden. and since
then the estate has been developed by
them, and, as in the case of almost
all the Bedford properties, in a spa
clous way, with broad streets and a
dignity modern town planners envy
out fail to initiate.
Wins Recognition as Financier.
BY this great coup of buying a London
quarter as whole Mr. Mallaby-Deelev
WINS recognition as one of the greatest
nhanciers of our times. His previous
operat1ons-his cool taking over of the
great Piccadilly Hotel for $2,5OOOOO or
more, when 1t was always derelict; his
captaHzation OF golf as pastime Of the
fich, his acquisition of the finest hotel
site In Europe" and the ST. Georges Hos
shown him to, be a man with immense
resources OF wealth, courage and irnagi-
nation. But he is hall marked by this
as surely as Lord Cowdray by his great
Mexican venture.
Today we recognize another world
power In finance. After sitting in par
lament as unionist NJ. p and studying
Mr.. Georse's character and plans, Mr.
MaIlaby-Deeiey has, got millions Of money
for investing in ground landlords rights,
the value Of which depends largely on
the future course of British legislation.
He has backed his political opinions with
the biggest stake any politician ever
to use the case of Covent Garden as an
argument in his land campaign it is be-
iieved that Mr.. Mallaby-Deeley will be
quite able to deal with it. The shrewd,
pink -complexioned financier, man in
spruce and active middle age, will per-
haps tell us all about the deal But
at the moment he has vanished from
town and prefers to say nothing. Mr..
Mallaby-Deeley doesn't talk or boast; he
carries through schemes.
Surprisingly little is known about Mr..
Mallaby-Deeley, considering the extent to
which he Is figuring in the public eye.
When he contested Harrow in 1910 this
fact was worked for all that it was
worth by the radicals. who actually as
serted that he was appearing under an
assumed name, his real appellation being
Cohen. The truth is simply that he is
the second son of NJ. Clarke Deeley of
Curzon Park. Chester. and brother of
the theatrical manager, Frank Curzon.
Born in 1863, he was educated at Shrews-
bury and Trinity College, Cambridge,
taking law honors in 1885. At one time
he was Henry Chaplin's secretary. Out
side finance and politics. his greatest pas
sion is golf. There are few better ex-
ponentS of the game at st. Stephens,
and he is chairman of two golf clubs-at
Mitcham and Sandwich.