Talk:Basil Zaharoff

Fictional Portrayals
In one of Leslie Charteris's stories about Simon Templar, Simon receives the memoirs of an arms merchant who apparently started several wars, perhaps including the Great War, to make money selling munitions. Simon informs several men that he intends to sell the memoir, in portions, to fund a foundation to prevent any further outbreak of that criminal madness. The rest of the story, as I recall, is a struggle for possession of the manuscript. When the local library reopens after renovations perhaps I can find the details. J S Ayer 03:01, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry, it's gone. J S Ayer 02:19, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

It was probably "The Simon Templar Foundation" in The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal. J S Ayer 02:41, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Mystery man
Guinness once referred to Zarahoff as the 'Mystery man of Europe' in the House of Commons; biographers of Zarahoff have reported great difficulty in obtaining details of his life and activities, and have left behind accounts which are sometimes contradictory or misleading. There is a story of a visitor to Zarahoff's house commenting on how warm it was, to be told that had been busy burning his diaries. The tone of the account here appears very definitive and does not reflect this uncertainty - we need a caveat somewhere to that effect. Ephebi (talk) 10:40, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Very poorly written
This article is entertaining, but very very badly written for an encyclopedia article. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie &#124; Say Shalom! 00:59, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Taste of softness
This article is interesting, and even if Wikipedia's aim is an objective knowledge, I noticed that this article is really softly written about Sir Basil Zaharoff... he wasn't a saint, and I think that the "dark" part of the men (the one which he was notably efficient for) should be stressed... I'm not sure that by giving this article as it is now to somebody which do not know about Zaharoff before could understand his complete role in the conflicts... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.128.4.166 (talk) 23:05, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Vastly insufficient citation
Huge sections of this article describe Zaharoff's life in great detail without a single citation. There is no way to know based on this whether the information is true or false. This needs to be fixed. --Pmetzger (talk) 17:38, 10 December 2016 (UTC)

Legion of Honour Award
I made a change to this page, and it was reverted, so I am opening up a discussion on it. The "See also" section, containing relevant Legion of Honour-themed Wikipedia page links, is a common addition to other biographical Wikipedia pages. I think it adds to the pages, and integrates this page with other appropriate Wikipedia pages. I am hoping that I can get some feedback about what was problematic about the change that I made. Looking forward to opening discussion on this, and reading everyone's thoughts. SMargan (talk) 08:09, 10 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Section order is set out in Wikipedias Manual of Style (MOS), specifically Manual_of_Style/Layout. The order for content after the article text is
 * Works or publications (for biographies only)
 * See also
 * Notes and references (this can be two sections in some citation systems)
 * Further reading
 * External links


 * As to "See also" content the guidelines say that "Whether a link belongs in the "See also" section is ultimately a matter of editorial judgment and common sense. One purpose of "See also" links is to enable readers to explore tangentially related topics; however, articles linked should be related to the topic of the article or be in the same defining category" That he weas given the legion of honour is not defining for Zaharoff; arms deals, wealth, corruption seem to be primary ways of categorizing him.


 * Also "As a general rule, the "See also" section should not repeat links that appear in the article's body" (MOS:NOTSEEALSO).


 * Other than his name starting with a Z, there is no commonality with other names on the List of Légion d'honneur recipients by name (Z)

GraemeLeggett (talk) 08:40, 10 July 2022 (UTC)