CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 10488, 28 December 1929, Page 1

CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE.

HIE REMOVAL FROM EGYPT. STORY OF STORMY PASSAGE. Somewhere in London there must be some bright people who imagine that after all the trouble that was taken to get it here, England ought to return Cleopatra’s Needle to Egypt. Early one morning recently, on the Thames embankment, hundreds of people who for years have passed the Needle without a second thought clustered around the historic relic. Prominently displayed on its base was a glaring notice in black and led on which was crudely scrawled: “Egypt! Righteousness exists! Notice: This Monument came from Egypt and was brought here some years back. It is the property of the Egyptians. Long live the nation! ” “Good heavens!” exclaimed a pro mi n ent Egyptian scholar in London when a newspaper writer approached him with the news. “Surely the most fiery Egyptian National would not deny us the Needle. In the first place, Egypt gave it to us. In the second place, wo didn’t want it. And in the third place, it was a miracle that we ever managed to get it here. “Mohammed Ali very kindly offered it to both George .IV, and William IV., and both said, ‘No, thank you.’ The thought of bringing from Egypt a monument of carved granite weighing 14 0 tons was, in those days, more than a joke. “About 1801 Sir Ralph Abercrombie took a fancy to it, and suggested that it should be conveyed to England in commemoration of his victory near Alexandria, where it had stood for a couple of thousand years. He and his friends subscribed some thousands of pounds toward the job, but it was not until 1877 that its transport was begun. “Before it was launched, the monument crashed into a tomb. Tugs took it to sea, and it struck a rock and sank. It was raised, and repaired, and towed away again, but was cut adrift in a storm in the Bay of Biscay. For two months it tossed about the ocean until it was discovered by a British ship and taken to Spain. It arrived in England in September, 1878.” “And if we don’t deserve to keep it after that, who does?” the speaker concluded. •