KING’S TREASURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 December 1924, Page 10

KING’S TREASURE.

TAKEN FROM MECCA. . Mr . George; Renwick, ' the Daily Chronicle special correspondent on the Red Sea, gives interesting glimpses of the" flight from Mecca of - the Arabian monarch' who a little while ago was receiving . golden subsidies from Britain. Included in /the ; travelling luggage of King Hussein, on his way to exile, are many ponderous oil-cans—supposed to be filled with. British sovereigns. He writes: Ex-King Hussein, the deposed monarch of the Hedjaz of Arabia, is now in Jeddah, the port of Mecca. He tiaveiled form the Sacred City comfortably in the handsome motor ar recently presented to him by Signor Mussolini, the Italian Premier. It is not yet' known when this latest of the world’s dethroned monarchs will leave for the scene of his banishment; nor is it known what his destination will be when he does leave. In Mecca and Jeddah very considerable interest has been evinced regarding a portion of the royal baggage.. That portion of the ex-Iving’s luggage consists of about a dozen Standard oil tins, which are extreme!v difficult to lift. I learn that in each of them are no fewer than 20,000 golden 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 upon a quarter of a million pounds sterling. That is not his entire fortune, for considerable amounts of money have been invested in Egypt and Palestine. It is a curious fact that in the Hedjaz the English pound has had a lower value than anywhere else in the world. At various times, when King Hussein was hard up for readv cash in the local currency, he parted' with large amounts in English money for about half their value. It was possible, then, to buy English nounds on the eastern side of the Red Sea. for about 50 piastres a little over the half-sovereign), and then sell them here, on the western side, for nearly double that amount.