King Saud Dead

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 17

King Saud Dead

(N.Z-P.A.-Reuter —Copyright? ATHENS, Feb. 24. ‘ King Saud, the former j ruler of Saudi Arabia,' has died after a heart ( attack in Athens. i

The former king, who arrived from Cairo on December 17 to spend a few months

in Greece, had been living at a nearby seaside resort. King Saud had lived in Greece for long periods since he stepped down from the throne in favour of his brother, King Faisal, in 1964. He ruled over a kingdom iso striking in its contrasts

| between the old and the new i that it came to be described as “The Land of Camels and Cadillacs.” His dominions covered ninetenths of the Arabian Peninsula which his father, Ibn Saud, won by conquest of arms and which oil made into one of the wealthiest States in the Middle East. After King Saud came to the throne in 1958, Saudi Arabia became the second largest oil-producing country in the world, wtih a revenue of £loom a year. King Saud neither drank nor smoked, but was fond of the luxuries of Western civilisation—Cadillac cars, private airliners and all the amenities that modem technology could provide. He had several palaces, one of which was reported to have the world’s largest air-condi-tioning plant. King Saud spent several weeks in a clinic in Lausanne, Switzerland, early in 1963, having treatment for high blood pressure and heart trouble.