DOUBTS EXPRESSED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8183, 26 July 1912, Page 1

DOUBTS EXPRESSED

“WANGANUI CHRONICLE" ASKS FOR INFORMATION. PBESS ASSOCIATION. WANGANUI, July 25. As a footnote to the Pahiatua message regarding Prince Dikran, the- c‘Wanganui Chronicle" publishes the following in the morning:— We have our doubts. We had them when tho Prince was in Wanganui, and this latest interview does not tend to dispel them. Prince Dikran is either what he claims to be or he is a fraudulent imposter. When he was In Wanganui he told a well-known resident that ho had received a "call" from Albania three weeks previously, and that ho was aware some time before it actually took place that a rising was contemplated by liis fellow-countrymen. To another resident he spoke familiarly of Mr Wilford, M.P., and declared that it was “Tommy” who had persuaded him to remain in New Zealand instead of going on to Now South AVales, as he had originally intended going. Now, according to tho statement made by the Prince to tho “Pahiatua Herald." the "call” has only come to hand by tho last mail. ’When in America, the Prince is credited with haring stated that ho intended putting in two years in a medical college in Canada; when in Canada ho is reported <o have alleged that ho was going to put in a couple of years iu a Boston medical college; when coming over from San Francisco ho says he told "Tommy” Wilford ho was going on to New South Wales to put in some time at a medical college there, and that “Tommy" in. duced him to stay on hero and put in tho time at Dunedin University; and -yet on his visiting card ha designates himself "M.D.” To say the least of it, this “Tommy” style of language does not appear to bo in keeping w>lh princely dignity, but savours rather of ‘‘tommyrot," to put in plainly. It is time Prince Dikran satisfied the authorities and the public as to bis bona fides. He Is using the press and the pulpit to exploit the public, and he is doing it either for a bona fide patriotic and philanthropic purpose, or to "take down” a credulous and gullible community. Which is it? The people of New Zealand have a right to know.

Prince Dikrnn was announced to deliver a lecture at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Pahiatua, last night on "Mohammedanism and why I left it for Christianity.”