RULER OF IRAK

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 September 1930, Page 11

RULER OF IRAK

“MOST REMARKABLE MONARCH.”

King Feisal of Irak, who was ■ recently in London, has been described as the most remarkable monarch in the world, and the description, says a “Daily Mail” correspondent, is not illchosen. . Tall, debonair, and dressed witn taste and elegance, one could not distinguish King Feisal from the hundreds of Englishmen to be found in the West End and about the Court of King George. Yet he is a true son of the Orient, a direct descendant of the Prophet, a Bedouin of the Bedouins, the greater part of whose life has been spent in the burning deserts of Arabia and the East. Great Britain is to this monarch and his people the exemplar among nations. When he received the writer King Feisal talked of the debt his country owes to Britain. “I am here, ’ he said, “to express the thanks of myself and my people to’ King George, to the British Government, and to the British people for all they have done for us. It is the hope of my country that, now all political problems have been settled, Great Britain will aid us further.

“There is much to be done. My people are anxious to do their share, but they want help and guidance, and they desire to turn for that to no one but the British. First of all, we want our railway extended to the Mediterraneans and we want to make Haifa, on the-coast of Palestine, our port. We should like to see a pipe-line carried there, so that our oil may be readily disposed of. “My country calls for development by irrigation, and we want engineers and experts to show us how to do it. As I came to London I flew across Egypt, from Kantara to Alexandra, and I saw from the air how the British have developed Egypt. The Egyptians owe their progress and present position to Britain. Is it too much to ask that Britain shall do the same for us? “There are opportunities in Irak for British capitalists and British engineers and experts to carry “out this 'work. There are untold opportunities for Britons in Irak. We want them as our teachers and our guides—we want them to do for us what they have done for Egypt, and they will not find us ungrateful. That is the message I would like to give to Britain.”