The Aga Khan’s Secret Wooing

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 22

The Aga Khan’s Secret Wooing

Romance of a Prince Whom Millions Regard! as a Demi-God . . .

aHK romance of the Aga Khan, the well-known Indian Prince, who is a widower of fifty-four, was first presented to the public in so imaginative and distorted a form as to arouse his resentment. Indignant denials of some of the published details were issued: but it is now admitted that his wedding will take place at Aix. The heroine of the romance was born at Chambery, the capital of Savoy, twenty-nine years ago. She conforms to the accepted type of Savoyard beauty, being a brunette with olive skin, large and lustrous dark eyes and glossy hair of raven blackness.

The French newspapers describe her as bourgeoise; by which they mean that'her father and her sister are both engaged in business. But to English ears the word may convey a false impression. It has to be stated, therefore, that the Aga Khan’s bride is a highly educated and accomplished young woman, in addition to being beautiful and fascinating. The Aga Khan has recently been staying at. Aix, where he has been entertaining with characteristic profusion at the Villa Victoria, the luxurious annexe to one of the principal hotels in the fashionable resort. Mile. Carron was visiting Chambery, and accompanied some friends to one of the Prince’s entertainments. And so began a romance which has swiftly blossomed into one of the most thrilling love stories of modern times. For the Aga Khan is a world figure; a Prince with a fabulous yearly income; and outside his wealth wields influence and power such as few mortals possess. When Shakespeare wrote that “Each man in his time plays many parts,” he might have had some prophetic vision of the existence of such a potentate as this Indian Prince. FOR THE ALLIES He assumes a different personality and a different mode of life according to the country where he happens to be residing. In Great Britain he is a great Imperial 'figure, and lives up to the part by conducting himself in no other way than as an English gentleman of simple tastes and unostentatious wealth. In France, which is far nearer to the East in sympathy and understanding than England, the Aga Khan is a prince who might have walked out of one of the stories of the Arabian Nights. He lives the life of an Oriental potentate, lavish, ostentalious. and mysterious. In India he is the spiritual head of pixty million Mohammedans, or more.

He walks apart from ordinary mankind; for his descent can be traced back through nearly fifty generations to the time of the prophet himself. To these devout followers of the faith he is a legendary being almost a demigod. After the war the Aga Khan became a great figure in the racing world. He began racing in India, and followed up his successes there by establishing a long racing string in France. Finally, he carried his racing venture into England, and a more sensational invasion of the Turf has never been known. The horse-breeding industry in England took a new lease of life as a result of the Aga Khan’s frequent visits to the sale rings. Year after year he renewed his purchases of yearling horses, and other buyers had to dance to the tune he set. The prices of bloodstock steadily appreciated, and the records for the price of a yearling were broken again and again. Much of his money was expended upon fashionably-bred fillies. The Prince’s avowed intention was to win the Derby if possible with an animal of his own breeding. In the end he had spent a quarter of a million sterling upon young racehorses, and established a breeding stud in Ireland. The stock at this establishment according to a recent estimate, is worth £500.000, so there was method and shrewdness in this apparent extravagance.

The sum realised by the sale of yearlings at Doncaster in 1928 was over £330,000, and the average price of the young horses was over 1,200 guineas a head. That was probably the highwater mark of the horse breeding industry, for this year the Aga Khan kept his vow and abstained from bidding. The total sum realised fell short .of the previous year by £IOO,OOO, and the average price de dined by over 400 guineas a head. And once more the Aga Khan is experiencing wonderful luck on the racecourse. He stands at the head of the list of winning owners, and his position seems secure. Not only that, but no owner seems to hold so good a chance of success in the next racing season.

The Prince does not take tile same interest in French and Indian racing as he did at one time. He is concentrating upon winning the Derby, and, moreover, he prefers the atmosphere of English racing, with its freedom from formality and pomp. He is a very popular and accessible figure on our racecourses; a non-betting owner with pronounced views on the totalisator, which he has not hestitated to make public. He likes English racing because he can move about the enclosures undisturbed and almost unnoticed. In France -it is a very different matter.

In Paris, too, one hears stories of his passion for extravagance and display, which do not match the simple maimer of his living in London. His entertainments are frequent and costly, and the Eastern note is invariably struck. It pleased the Parisians to read that the fairy-tale prince had met the woman he loved while she was serving in a sweetshop, and had improved his opportunities by spending a small fortune in chocolafes. The confectionery shop proves to be a myth, but the romantic wooing of this powerful Prince is, none the less, one of the most picturesque incidents of the century. M. Carron has made a statement to the “Paris-Midi” concerning the engagement of his daughter. He says: “We should have preferred to say nothing about it. The Aga Khan wanted the affair to be kept secret, but so much has been written about it that it is better to tell the truth and put things straight, I have four children. My two sons are abroad —one at Brussels and the other in Scotland. “My eldest daughter has a dressmaking establishment in the Boulevard Haussmann. Her sister was a saleswoman in a perfumer’s shop in Paris. “When he was-at Aix, the Aga Khan visited her frequently. The Aga Khan met her, too, at the houses of her sister’s customers, who w'ere also friends of her employer.”