HEIR TO FORTY WIVES

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5879, 6 April 1920, Page 3

HEIR TO FORTY WIVES

SENSATIONAL LEG ACY. LUCKY AMERICAN SERGEANT. Early in the New Year there will sail across the Pacific from San Francisco, California, Robert A. McLean, who until recently, was a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, upon one of the strangest missions ever chronicled m Pacific annals, tor, says an American exchange, he has fallen heir to no fewer than 40 wives. McLean is the son of the late Dr. Robert McLean, who, before his was Emeritus Professor of Clinical and Operative Surgery in the University of California medical school in San Franoiseb. Telling his story, young McLean said ; '•'Six years ago while * stationed in Malnila, I was sent to the Southern Philippines on a political mission. Usually on every island there is a. ruler, called a sultan. They are devotees of the Mohammedan religion. “My mission took me tb the Island Liang-LI an g. where the Sultan Abdul Kasha Mid ruled. He took a liking to me, and adopted me according to tho tribal custom.

“I departed from the island, and forgot the incident. But recently the Sultan died, ami I was notified that 1 wras the only heir to his kingdom. I should have paid little attention to tho inheritance ’ but for the fact that there are several valuable pearl fisheries connecittod with the estate. “Among the other possessions of the Sultan which fall to me is his harem of 40 wives. These wives are not slaves, but were acquired by him in marriage. According to custom, they go to the successor of the Sultan. “I plan to give the wives away. I shall distribute them among the neighbouring sultams if they are willing. ’ McLean says there are also a number of slave girls connected with the household of the Sultan, and these he will set free. The island has an area of three square miles, and the population numbers about 2500.

McLean is married, his wife being the Cbuntess Eva Margaret V isnowskj daughter of Count Wisnewski, of Warsaw, holder of one of the largest estates iln Poland before the war. Count Wisfnewski and his daughter fled a.s refugees to America after all their holdings in their native land were either confiscated or destroyed, , barely escaping with their lives in the flight for liberty. JMrs McLean does not object to the 10 ■wives which her husband has inherited, but she is going with him to reign as Sultana when he begins his work of distribution of the harem. “Don't for heavefn’s sake,” says the sergeant-major, “let the impression get out for a minute tha I would keep those 40 wives if X hadn’t one of my own already.”