KING FEISAL’S FUNERAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18257, 28 November 1933, Page 3

KING FEISAL’S FUNERAL

EYE-WITNESS’ STORY REMARKABLE SCENES SYDNEY, Nov. 16. The funeral of King Feisal of Iraq was described by Mr. G. Nairn, a passenger by the tanker British Ardour, which reached Sydney from Abadan. Mr. Nairn, who was a member of the New Zealand forces during the Great War, is on his way to New Zealand to spend three months’ holiday before returning to Damascus, where he is engaged in a motor transport business between Damascus and Bagdad. King Feisal died at Berne (Switzerland). Ilis body was emblamed an<l taken to Brindisi. A British cruiser then took it to Haifa, whence it was carried to Bagdad by a Royal Air Force aeroplane. Scenes which were probably unprecedented at the funeral of any other Moslem monarch were enacted, according to Mr. Nairn. Almost continual mourning was to bo heard in the streets of Bagdad from the time of the King's death until he was buried in the new Royal tomb in the grounds of Parliament House. For seven days men moved slowly in the streets, beating their breasts with grief. Women joined in the processions which paced the town at frequent intervals, and their wails could be heard at a great distance. When the gun-carriage bearing the coffin was drawn through the streets the police had great difficulty in preventing the crowd disorganising the ceremony. Many ol the Arab 3 had not seen a Royal funeral before; their one desire was to touch the coffin. They were outwitted. /When the procession crossed the Maude Bridge over the Tigris, a solid mass of excited humanity threatened to submerge the structure, and an order was given to cut it down. Thus many people were prevented from crossing and seeing the funeral. One man, owing to pressure of the crowd, slipped under the wheels of the gun carriage, which passed over him. Ho recovered after medical attention. Mr. Nairn was impressed by Abe display of loyalty.