Queen In Distress

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

Queen In Distress

•THE campaign in favour of 1 increasing the State grant to ex-Queen Salima Machimba 1., who left her island kingdom to follow a French gendarme, whom she married, has again been taken up by the well-known Parie lawyer, Maitre Theodore Valensi, in a letter to M. Steeg, Minister of Colonies.

"Your Excellency knows," he states. "the unhappy romance of this sovereign who left her throne to marry the man eiie loved, a French gendarme. It ie a picturesque and human story. Salima Machimba reigned over the island of Mohilla (between Madagascar and the African continent). It ie a small island but she had the power of life and death over 12,000 subject*.

"When she left her palace in the capital of Fonboni the French Government planted their flag there and gave her a <n-ant of only 3000 francs a year ( £20 at present rates). Thie was raised to 10,000 francs (nearly £70), but as a result of devaluation and her increasing age it ie difficult for her to live. It is a question of French prestige that the Queen of a country where the French flag flies is not left in distress." The ex-Queen recently wrote a letter to the President of the French Republic asking for an increase in her grant.