NUMBER ONE, MECCA!

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18771, 26 July 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

NUMBER ONE, MECCA!

ARAB CAUPH'S TELEPHONE, <■ . '.-_■;■ . .--. --■ HOW TO STOP LISTENERS. OTHER NUMBERS CUT OFP, WHEN A KING IS " ENGAGED." The how Arab Caliph, King Hussein « !of Hejaz, has had the telephone system! : -." installed in Mecca, the birthplace «>f Mo--hammed, and has insisted that his own' i number, as befitting a king, should be No. 1, Mecca. But the king has not stopped here in asserting his po-weir and .. dignity. - . " In order ,that his words may not Le overheard when ho is carrying on a conversation the king has insisted thai Ihty, telephone service shall be so arranged that *' V the lifting of his receiver automatically" disconnects all other telephones! Until . ','?•' the royal conversation is finished and the ! king's receiver is replaced on its hook, no other telephone can be used in Mecca! Not content with the telephone, the king has also had a wireless station erected outside Mecca. It is used for official pur- i 1 poses only. The enemies of the king would like the Westjrn world to believe that he is a mere desert sheik, untutored and un- \ lettered, but, as a correspondent of The Times pokvts out, ho is very Jar from y this- , •'■' While the new Arabian Caliph has many patriarchal traits in his character, says a correspondent of the Children's Newspaper, he is less primitive in outlook than some suppose. Untutored His Majesty certainly is not, and it is hardly justifiable to apply the belittling description of a mere desert sheik to a monarch, who is not only editor-in-chief of 331 Kibbv -the official organ of the Hejazi Government, but often actually writes the leading articles, and generally makes a point . of reading the whole paper in proof. .<; The reading and correcting of Arabic - galley-proofs is ,a matter of no small'=-is technical nicety, and both King Husswn. and his Heir Apparent, the Emir-Ali,.=. have been seen in their tents at Shuneh hard at work with fountain pens, improving the grammar, polishing the periods, and perfecting the stops of the next issue of Ei Kibla. It is one of the most amazing signsof the times, this progress at Mecca. Who would have thought it possible, ten years'' ago, to find at the birthplace of thr 'h Prophet, the sacred centre of the Moslem world, such things as telephones, newspapers i and wireless? ■ ; : '/ It is little more than a hundred years" ago that Mecca was visited for the '.first., time by a European traveller Join Burckhardt, who ran enormous risks, but,. owing to native fanaticism he has fpuncv very few followers. Now, however, under its enterprising king, Mecca seems to be modernising itself.