ROYAL EXILES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 29, 4 February 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

ROYAL EXILES.

FATE OF TURKISH PRINCES

REDUCED TO TRAGIC STRAITS.

From the dazzling splendour of a Royal palace to dire poverty, fate has dealt, one of its bitterest blows to the descendants of the exiled Turkish former Imperial family. ' Scattered throughout Europe and Asia some of these former princes and princesses are living on the verge o starvation, while others are engaged, in the most menial occupations in their hard struggle for existence. Their plight is a tragic contrast to the luxury of their lives while the Sultan ruled in magnificent state in Constantinople. In their dire straits, two princes in the South of France own only one shirt between them, and have to take turns in wearing it. When the Grand National Assembly at Angora disestablished the Moslem religion in Turkey, in March, 1924, deposing the caliph, Abdul Mejid, and abolishing the caliphate, the last members of the royal family were expelled from the country. The last Sultan of Turkey, Mohammed VI. had been ft reed to flee when his office was abolished some 18 months The disclosures regarding the poverty of the Turkish ex-royal family are made by Madam Izzat Pasha, the daughter of the Governor of Syria, who has arrived in India to plead the cause of these Ottoman outcasts. Hunt For Husbands. Not only is she seeking financial support from wealthy Indian Moslems, but she hopes to find suitable husbands for 18 young Turkish girls belonging to the former royal house. Two of the-.n were married Ao the heir-apparent of the Nizam of Hyderabad and the son of Sir Ali Khan, member of the Indian Legislative Assembly. According to Madam Izzat, one of the sons of the ex-caliph, Prince Faruq, had often to go to bed hungry in Nice, where he eked out a miserable existence. He died recently and there were no funds to send his body to a Moslem country for burial, according to the traditions of his ancestry. Sultan's Widow. "There is also in Nice," said Madam Iz?sat, "a widow of Sultan Mohammed VI. who lives with her son and two grandchildren in abject poverty. "No Turk has ever given a penny to help the royal outcasts in their distress. "The chief friends of this ill-fated dynasty have been the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Nawab of Bhopal, who have contributed generously towards their assistance."