LATE KING FEISAL

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 104, 30 October 1933, Page 15

LATE KING FEISAL

DEVOTED TO DUTY

ALLENBY'S TRIBUTE

NEW KING GHAZI

(From "Tho Post's" Representative.) LONDON, September 13.

. King Faisal's death, it is believed, was the direct result of a motor drive on the previous day, in the course of which his car took a wrong road which climbed over 2500 ft. It is thought that the extra pressure at this altitude on arteries already enfeebled as a result of the strain of the past few months—ho interrupted his treatment to return .to Bagdad in August in

order to deal with the Assyrian crisis —led to the fatal attack.

How, in spito of his weak constitution, King Feisal worked for eighteen hours a day, was described by Ja'far Pasha, the Irak Minister in. London, before he left for Berne.

"His death was really due to overwork," said Ja'far Pasha. . "Every morning he began work at six and went on till midnight. It was a terrible life. Ho was a permanent official as well as a king He had to go into evory detail. Building a kingdom is not an easy job. Ho did it under very difficult conditions, and he was very loyal to his work. Ho was a very great friend of Great Britain. "The King ' meant everything to. Irak," added Ja'far Pasha. "We had great faith in him —hopes that he would settle our national aspirations wisely and steadily, as he has done in soventcen years. ' His firm belief was to co-operato with. Great Britain to reach his goal. He knew the only nation that could help us was Great Britain. I think his nation will follow his footsteps." WITH ALLENBY IN PALESTINE. Viscount Allenby, who came into close contact with King Feisal during the war and was attached, to his stait' 011 tho occasion of' his official visit to Britain in June, paid sa glowing tribute 'to him. ' • - ~ "I had the- honouj. o f counting him ■as a great personal friend," said Lord Allenby. "He was a very charming personality, a loyal friend, and, as a man, straightforward. He was a good soldier and an able politician, and —what many politicians arc not — ■honest with it. His sense of duty was great and he was a very true friend to this country. I presume he sacrificed himself for his country. A king has to do that sort of thing." Lord Allenby said that he first met King Feisal in Damascus tho day after the British troops arrived there. Ho was then, as Emir, in command of King Hussein's Hejaz troops. "I was struck by his appearance," said Lord Allenby. "He was a fine-looking man, very handsome. He knew Lawrence of Arabia very well, and between the two —Kins and soldier—there was a deep mutual admiration. Lawrence was liaison officer between Foisal and me. I was commanding the Army in Palestine; Lawrence, with one or two other young Englishmen, was moving northwards on tho other sida of the Jordan as part of the same campaign. Tho association o£ Ecisal and Lawrence was a very happy one." ASSYRIAN TROUBLE. There is no .doubt (says the "-Daily Telegraph") that King Feisal's great concern over the troublo among tho Assyrians on the Irak frontier, at a time when he was in ill health, made his condition much worse. He went to Switzerland for treatment after his visit to England, and was feeling much better, when news came of the frontier "war."

In spite of his illness, King Feisal left at once by air for Bagdad, arriving on August 2, when the summer heat was at its worst.

As a result he grew more indisposed, but he delayed his return to Switzerland to await the arrival of Sir Francis Humphrys, the British Ambassador, who had been on leave in Norway. On August 23 Sir Francis Humphrys arrived by air in Bagdad, and the samo evening had a long conference with j King Feisal, who again postponed his return to Switzerland for a week. Ho finally left by air for Switzerland on September 1, arriving at Berne on September 2. Before leaving ho signed a message to tho people of Irak, in which, ho said that ho hoped to return within six weeks..' THE NEW KING. A special correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" gives a sketch of the Emir Ghazi, now King of Irak, who reached his majority in March this year. His education has been contrived with some care. On the one hand he has received the traditional upbringing of the Arab —even to the extent of living with the Bedouin of the desert—and on the other he has learnt something of Western ways of thought and life. In his early teens he received instruction from English tutors and governesses in Bagdad, under the supervision of Miss Gertrude Bell. Later he came to England and was at Harrow from--1925 to 1928. There he was known as a pleasantmannered, quiet boy, who did his best to enter into tho life of. the school. His chief intorests were mechanical. He was an expert driver of a car long before her was old enough to hold a licence, and ho had to indulge his taste for speed at Brooklands, where he must have been one of the youngest drivers who ever went round that track. A partiality for the cinema, a love of practical joking, and a predilection for the more highly-coloured productions of the confectioner's art showed him. to be a boy much like other boys. If ho has not inherited his father's intellectual ability, he has the advantage of a sound constitution, which his father never enjoyed. After leaving Harrow, the Emir Ghazi passed through the Military School in Bagdad. There had been for somo time a project of his coining to Sandhurst—though Ghazi himself was anxious to go to Crauwell—which now clearly will not bo realised.