KINGS WHO LIVE ON PENSIONS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 75, 28 March 1918, Page 3

KINGS WHO LIVE ON PENSIONS.

■ In subjugating the savage tribes i* . their African and Asiatic poscsessions, a task which has kept the French people busy for many years, they have been not a little embarrassed at time* by finding themselves burdened with a few deposed monarchs, whom it was found necessary to pension off in order to keep them out of further mischief; One of the first of these deposed kings was Behanzin,, King of Dahomey, who was deprived of his throne some twenty years ago, and whose son is now living in Paris on a jsftmll pension. v -,:v Mention might also be made of the nephew and successor of Benhanzin, Prince King of Dahomey, who was dispossessed in 1900. What caused the most chagrin to this black king was not so much the loss of his realm, but that of a large diamond ring, the gift of the Government which confiscated it. Eighty thousand francs is the pension which is paid to the former King of Annam, the Prince Ham Nghi, , monarch of the territory along the east coast of Indo-China, which has been under a French Protectorate since 1885. The King of Annara’s history is not eventful. He was taken prisoner by the French in 1887, being sent to Algiers after his capture, where he now lives peaceably. Another Indo-Chinese prince, Than iTyai, receives an annual pension of 30,000 francs, and lives in quiet retirement at Saint-Jaques. Ranavalo, Queen of Madagascar, is one of the most interesting royal pensioners of France. After the abolition of royalty in the island in 1898 she was taken to France, and afterwards to Algiers. >At first she drew a pension of 25,000 francs a year from the, 'State, but now receives. 100,000 francs, and an additional sum of 2,000 francs for the education of her grand-niece, who is being raised in a family at Versailles. Quite a number of pensions are being paid France to lesser-known royalties. There is Said Ali, former Sultan of La Grand Coipore, whose annual pension has been raised to 17,000 francs, the civil list also including Prince Said Bakari, , r SOO „franc«; Princess Sittina, 360 francs; and the two princesses, Adidja and Sinff, Ifif •si* 'franc&*ftehV