LATE KING FEISAL

Southland Times, Issue 22157, 27 October 1933, Page 5

LATE KING FEISAL

GREAT SENSE OF DUTY LORD ALLENBY’S TRIBUTE. The death of King Feisal, of Iraq, it is believed, was the direct result of a motor drive on the previous day, in the course of which his car took a wrong road which climbed over 2500 ft. It is thought that the extra pressure at this altitude on arteries already enfeebled as a result of the strain of the past few months—he interrupted his treatment to return to Baghdad in August in order to deal with the Assyrian crisis—led to the fatal attack. How, in spite of his weak constitution, King Feisal worked for 18 hours a day, was described by Ja’far Pasha, the Iraq Minister in London, before he left for Berne. “His death was really due to overwork,” said Ja’far Pasha. “Every morning he began work at six and went on till midnight. It was a terrible life. He was a permanent official as well as a King. He had to go into every detail. Building a kingdom is not an easy job. He did it under very difficult conditions, and he was very loyal to his work. He was a very great friend of Great Britain. “The King meant everything to Iraq,” added Ja’far Pasha. “We had great faith in him —hopes that he would settle our national aspirations wisely and steadily, as he has done in 17 years. His firm desire was to cooperate with Great Britain to reach his goal. He knew the only nation that could help us was Great Britain. I think his nation will follow his footsteps.”

With Allenby in Palestine. Viscount Allenby, who came into close contact with King Feisal during the war and was attached to his staff on the occasion of his official visit to Britain in June, paid a glowing tribute to him. “I had the honour of counting him as a great personal friend,” said Lord Allenby. “He was a very charming personality, a loyal friend, and, as a man, straightforward. He was a good soldier and an able politician, and what many politicians are not —honest with it. His sense of duty was great and he was a very true friend to this country. I presume he sacrificed himself for his country. A King has to do that sort of thing.” Lord Allenby said that he first met King Feisal in Damascus the day after the British troops arrived there. He was then, as Emir, in command of King Hussein’s Hejaz troops. “I was struck by his appearance,” said Lord Allenby. “He was a fine-looking man, very handsome. He knew Lawrence of Arabia very well, and between the two —King and soldier—there was a deep

mutual admiration. Lawrence was liaison officer between Feisal and myself. I was commanding the Army in Palestine; Lawrence, with one or two other young Englishmen, was moving northwards on the other side of the Jordan as part of the same campaign. The association of Feisal and Lawrence was a very happy one.” The Assyrian Trouble.

There is no doubt, says the Daily Telegraph, that King Feisal’s great concern over the trouble among the Assyrians on the Iraq frontier, at a time when he was in ill-health, made his condition much worse. He went to Switzerland for treatment after his visit to England, and was feeling much better, when news came of the frontier “war.” . . In spite of his illness, King Feisal left at once by air for Baghdad, arriving on August 2, when the summer heat was at its worst. As a result, he grew more indisposed, but he delayed his return to Switzerland to await the arrival of Sir Francis Humphrys, the British Ambassador, who had been on leave in Norway. On August 23 Sir Francis Humphrys arrived by air in Baghdad and the same evening had a long conference with King Feisal, who again postponed his return to Switzerland for a week. He finally left by air for Switzerland on September 1, arriving at Berne on September 2. Before leaving, he signed a message to the people of Iraq, in which he said that he hoped to return within six weeks. A correspondent of the Daily Telegraph gives a sketch of the Emir Ghazi, now King of Iraq, who reached his majority in' March this year. His education has been contrived with some care. On the one hand he has received the traditional up-bringing of the Arab —even to the extent of living with the Bedouin of the desert—and on the other he has learned something of Western ways of thought and life. In his early ’teens he received instruction from English tutors and governesses in Baghdad under the supervision of Miss Gertrude Bell. Later he went to England and was at Harrow from 1925 to 1928.

Interests as a Boy. The Emir Ghazi was know at Harrow as a pleasant-mannered, quiet .boy, who did his best to enter into the life of the school. His chief interests were mechanical. He was an expert driver of a car long before he was old enough to hold a licence, and he had to indulge his taste for speed at Brooklands, where he must have been one of the youngest drivers who ever went round that track.

A partiality for the cinema, a love of practical joking, and a predilection for the more highly-coloured productions of the confectioner’s art showed the new King to be a boy much like other boys. If he has not inherited his father’s intellectual ability, he has the advantage of a sound constitution, which his father never enjoyed. After leaving Harrow, the Emir Ghazi passed through the Military School in Baghdad. There had been for some time a project of his going to Sandhurst—though Ghazi himself was anxious to go to Cranwell—which now clearly will not be realized.