KING FEISAL WORKING FOR REAL PROGRESS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6850, 4 March 1929, Page 9

KING FEISAL WORKING FOR REAL PROGRESS

POLITICS OF LITTLE IMPORT COMPARED WITH SUCCESS OF NATIONAL WORKS.

BAGDAD, Jan. 24. Politics interest me no longer, and I am more concerned whether a cultivator in the Euphrates Valley gets out of his soil a bushel of grain where formerly he got none, or two bushels where before he grew only one.” Thus King Fcisal of Irak dismissed politely, if somewhat dcprecatingly, some of an American newspaper representative’s questions about outstanding political issues. Lounging easily on an English, cliesterlield, tho Hashimite ruler of Irak did not cut the figuro of an Arabian desert chief —he might easily have been taken for a successful man of aifairs who would lit into a big executive office in New York or the lounge of a London club. Tho Western stamp is upon everything and everybody connected with the palace. The sidara, or ‘ 1 Fcisal, as the hea/dgear is called in honour o± the King, is the only mark distinguishing their wearers from tho ordinary run of Europeans. A democratic King, his attendants copy him in manner and dress. The guard outside the Palace, drawn from the Assyrian levies, are dressed and act as smartly in khaki uniform as any English Tommy could wish. King Questions Interviewer.

Tho King started by interviewing his interviewer. The revolutionary changes in Turkey, where the correspondent had recently been, economic conditions in Syria and industrial progress iu Palestine were matters that seemed to interest him greatly. More than a quarter of tho hour the correspondent had mentally allowed for the audience as tho limit of time the King might allow a peripathetic journalist was consumed in answering the King s questions. , ~ , As head of the state he could not in fairness say whether Irak was becoming progressively and increasingly self-governing and self-contained. He was naturally prejudiced, he felt, and any judgment of his might bo taken as biased optimism. Ho was Teady to recapitulate actual progress, however. There had been in the last year or two a tremendous display of private enterprise, he said. Land owners had invested £2,000,000 in irrigation pumps. Four or five years ago, had he been told that Irakis would raise any such sum of money for the improvement ottheir agriculture he would have thought it incredible. “Five years ago I wont for the first time to Kut, and along the whole route wliich. follows tho bunk of the Tigris, King Feisal said. “I saw only a very few houses, and mostly brown patchos of parched land. Follow the Tigris bank now, and go miles inland, and you will find practically all the land under cultivation. This is true also if you take the road to Sammara or Bakuba. I am not entirely happy. Progress is slow, But if after 10 years Irak, which is still desperately poor, is not appreciably better off, I shall be a disappointed man. People now have security, and they should be able to work in peace and confidence. Railway Necessary. “When first tho boundaries of Irak were defined, the people were a shephcrdless flock. Then came the period of pacification, but still no basis for economic revival. To-day. we are busy making our agricultural programme. Our plans for road improvement are laid. The railway scheme has been perfected. All these things will require money, and our greatest concern is that a railway line should be built from Bagdad to Haifa. Tho railway will give a great stimulus to trade; without it tho country’s economic future is doubtful. , “Two hundred thousand nomads whoso chief pursuit in former times was raids are now settled on tho land. If the present rato of progress is maintained. I anticipate an actual labour shortage within a few years,” concluded the King. There was one politically tingeu question which tho correspondent felt justified in putting: “Why, if His Majesty realised that the assistance and co-operation of Great Britain would be necessary to Irak for years to come, was he not satisfied with tho mandate, and insisted instead on a treaty?” . The answer to this question was srivon with the precision and digmty of a proud Arab chief. “The nation to which I belong,” said King Feisal, measuring his words, “is an old nation. It has lived in the past, and will, with God’s help, live in tho fa-' turc. It is entitled to take its proper place among tho nations of the world.”