KING’S TREASURE

Evening Star, Issue 18817, 16 December 1924, Page 1

KING’S TREASURE

TAKEN FROM -MECCA. CANS SAID TO CONTAIN SOVEREIGNS. .Mr George Renwick, tho 1 Daily Chronicle's’ special correspondent on the Red Sea, gives interesting glimpses of the llight tioui Mecca of the Arabian monarch who a laLu while ago was receiving golden subsidies from Britain. Included in the travelling luggage of King Hussein, on his way lo exile, -are many ponderous oilcans—supposed to bo filled with British sovereigns. He writes; Ex-King Hussein,_the deposed; monarch of the Uedjaz of Arabia, is now in Jeddah, the port of Mecca. Ho travelled from the -S-acrecl City comfori ably in tho handsome, motor car recently presented lo him by Signor Mussolini, tho Italian Premier. It is not yet known when this lalest of the world's dethroned rnonarchs will leave •for the scene of his banishment; nor is it known what ins destination will be when ho does -leave. in sles.-a and Jeddah very considerable interest has been evinced regarding a portion of tho (Royal baggage. That portion of tho ex-King's luggage consists of about a dozen Standard oil tins, winch are extremely difficult to lift. REAL GOLDEN POUNDS. I learn that in each of them arc iu fewer Gian 20,000 ignlden pounds, which King Hussein saved from his subsidy received from Great Britain and from other sources of income. Hussein goes into exile, on this computation, with a. handsome capital in the best form of ready cash, amounting to close up ui a. quarter of a million pounds sterling. 'Hint is not his entire 'fortune, for •considerable amounts of money have been invested. in Egypt and I’aleslinc. H is a c.urious fact that in the Hcdjaz the English pound has had a lower value than anywhere else in the world. At various times, when King Hussein was hard up for ready cash in the local currency, he parted with large amounts in English money for about half their -value. U was possible, then, to buy English pounds -on l-he Eastern side of the Red Peator about fifty piastres (nominally a liMlo over tho half-sovereign), and then sell them here, on the Western side, for nearly double that, amount.