COURAGEOUS KING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21640, 4 November 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

COURAGEOUS KING

RULER OF BULGARIA

BORIS' FINE RECORD

INSTANCES OF COOL PLUCK

Britain's latest royal visitor, King Boris of Bulgaria, who, with his queen, the former Princess Giovanna of Italj' was recently in England on a visit, has remained a figure little known outside his own country since ho ascended tho throne, from which his father, King Ferdinand, - 'fled at the closo of the Groat War,

( It was in 1918, when he was oidy 23, that Boris was called upon to face responsibilities from wt'ic-h any young man would bo forgiven for shrinking. Possibly the best tribute ever paid to his qualities of kingship says the News of the World, was the observation of a diplomat,, who once declared that no one had over been able, to accuse him of a single false move in his country since he was crowned.

i Boris soon showed he' was a young man of very likeable, unassuming, and democratic manners, with commonsense notions and many sterling qualities. Moreover, ho has demonstrated in many ways that he is tho possessor of physical pluck far above the 'average. During tho war years "Boris was ever to bo found where Bulgarian troops were fighting their fiercest battles. " That young man," once declared tho Bulgarian commander-in-chief, " gives me more anxiety than anything tho onemy's headquarters can plan. Tliero is no holding him back at all."

A new demonstration of this cool courage came when, some six years after Boris had ascended tho throne, an effort was made to assassinate him. He was travelling in an open car with ono equerry and a young botanist 'to whom ho was greatly attached. Dusk had fallen and the ■ car, striking an obstacle in tho road, was

overturned into a wayside ditch. Simultaneously a deadly rifle fire \vas opened by a band of concealed assassins. The chauffeur, the equerry, and the botanist were killed on tho spot. Boris was flung headlong from tho car—

Picking himself up, be dashed up the road where another ear was approaching. sprang aboard, seized the wheel from the driver, and. drove bark through the hail of bullets, coolly retaining the wheel until Sofia was reached.

|. One more striking instance was furnished two years ago when, while taking a holiday on the Black Sea, the king rescued a party of six women and children from drowning. The party went put, in a rowing-boat, wore trapped in a terrific storm, and were given up for lost, none of the boatmen along tho shore venturing to put out and face the raging waves and wind. Suddenly a young man raced along the pier, sprang into a motor-launch, and, starting tho engine, dashed at full speed to the sinking boat. It took careful manoeuvring to get the frightened women and children aboard, but he managed it —and it was sonic time after they had been landed and cared for that it was learned that the rescuer was King Boris. For some .years one of Boris' principal recreations was that of driving tho Orient express on its passage through Bulgaria. He became an expert enginedriver, and used to observe that if ever he lost his " position " he should be able to earn his living as a mechanic. Some of his closest friendships have been among the chief enginedrivers in Bulgaria. The king's other chief hobby is to search for rare flowers. He and a professor of botany have made many striking discoveries in this sphere in the forests lying outside Sofia.