KINGS IN EXILE

Evening Star, Issue 22459, 2 October 1936, Page 11

KINGS IN EXILE

ODYSSEYS OF DEPOSED MDNARGHS The arrival of the Negus in England adds a further name (writes Ferdinand Tuohy in the ‘ Daily Mail ’) to the growing list of contemporary exiles. Just what will be the run of things for this latest recruit—whether he is destined to hold the stage or to fade out in some climatic retreat—it would be rash to prophesy, yet one aspect seems already determined; he will not want. Haile Selassie has his chests of treasure, £4,000,(XX) worth, so it has been said. He also has his family. Ex-King Alfonso of Spain has made his base in Geneva with one unmarried daughter. Others have fared worse. Take the onco-fcted ex-King of Afghanistan. One year Amanullali was staying in Orientalised apartments at Buckingham Palace; the next, bo and his consort were outcasts on Lake Geneva, magnetic point for exiles, past and present. Since then Amanullah has sincerely tried to earn a livelihood. .Among other things ho has been house agent. But ho is not apparently built that way, and to-day lives very modestly in Rome. One who has now done more than 10 3 cars of St. Heleua-liko exile is Abdel-Krim, the tough old Riffian, who, after running the Spaniards into the Mediterranean, was to cause France’s admirable Moroccan forces much worry before finally Marshal Retain disposed of him. OFFER OF FRIENDSHIP. Krim surrendered, and implored his captors that ho be allowed to stay on his native hills; he would never give trouble again, even be France’s firm friend. But the French thought otherwise. Krim would bo better far out of tho way, on tho Isle de Reunion, in th« Indian Ocean, in which tropical spot he remains, surrounded b.v wives, offspring, and attendants. The writer once had to buy a box of paints for an exile, the cx-Caliph. At the time of his exile Irom the Bosphorus (1924) one read that “ Abdul Medjid’s personal belongings filled a fleet of lorries ” and that “ the last of the Caliphs flits to and fro between a Riviera luxury hotel and the whole floor of a Swiss one.” The facts were slightly different. Komal Atntnrk gave Abdul 500 pounds Turkish and six hours iu which to leave Sfamboul. The party of 16 sons, sjcictnrics. wives (four), and daughters anived ai Montreaux with-

out the proverbial bean, and had to remain two months “ in pawn ” there until funds were forthcoming. Abdul, a jaunty septuagenarian, spends his evening between Nice and Aix-les-Bains, on the strength of several thousand a 3 - ear put up by Indian Princes. Wilfcam 11. will this autumn complete 18 years in Holland, where lie still seems to be going strong. Zeal for religion, carrying an unwavering belief in his Divine Bight, has seemingly provided fortitude, plus the luck of a second good companion in ‘‘the Empress.” There is slim chance now but that William 11. will read the prayers to his tiny staff and Prussian Court-in-exile to the end. As the Dutch squire he will chop less and less wood and tend more and more to his roses until the day when (to transcribe a phrase of his own) he journeys to Potsdam for the last time, "in a wooden box.” But lie will have lived to see Germany powerful again. A selective form of exile is that of the abdicated old Etonian King of Siam, who prefers Surrey to Bangkok, ostensibly because he wished to retain the power of life and death over his subjects, but possibly also on account of a falling barometer at home, THE EX-EMPEROR PD YI. Tho ex-Emperor Pu Yi of China can go most places as Japanese puppet in Manchukuo, save to his native land, a condition that also applies to the exKhedive, Abbas Hilmi 11., vis-a-vis of E^llie' odyssey of the ex-Empress Zita of Austria and her family of eight should make good memoirs one day. Steenockerzeele, a turroted and moated, grim Flemish chateau near Brussels, has by much been their longest fixed point—nearly six years. Previously, what a nomadic struggle it had been! Rescued in a British monitor and carried down to the Black Sea ■ Malta, Gibraltar, Lake Geneva (whence two attempts to regain the throne of Hungary) ; Funchal, povertv, and the death of Karl; years of family kindergarten in a Spanish fishing village near Santander, with just sumrient funds to keep going; then the haven in Belgium, and the gradually increasing importance of Otto internationally. VISITS TO VIENNA. S.iall this family’s exile finish first? It is in a way finished already, since has not the eldest daughter been attendin'' official occasions in Vienna? Such” a list as the foregoing is already double or treble the pre-war normal, yet constitutes ouly halt the story in 1936. Those are exiles in other spheres. , T . To mention but two: Alexander Keronsky lives the difficult life of a freelance journalist iu Paris, even at this time of the day still hopeful that Communism will eventually be obliged o knuckle down to Social Democracy. Delicate hut more brilliant than ever Deon Trotsky is currently moored in Norway. He has not wasted his days in exile, having completed one of the "reatest histories ever written before settling down to the planning of Ins Foorib International directed at world