NEARLY STARVING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 435, 20 January 1933, Page 3

NEARLY STARVING

ROYAL EXILES ' TWO EX-PRINCES WITH ONE SHIRT BETWEEN THEM. FATE'S BITTER BLOW. 1 From the'dazzling splendour of a Royal palace to dire poverty, fate has dealt oue of its bitterest blows to the descendants of the exiled former Turkish Imperial family. Scattered throughout Europe and Asia, some of these former princes and princesses are living on the verge of starvation, while others are engag- j ed in the most menial occupations in their hard struggle for existence. Their plight is a tragic contrast to the luxury of their lives while the Sultan' ruled in magnificent state in Constantinople. In their dire straits, two princes in the South of France own only one shirt between them and have to take turns in wearing it. When the Grand National Assembly at Angora disestablished the Moslem religion in Turkey, in March, 1924, deposing the Caliph, Abdul Mepid, and aholishing the caliphate, the last membprs of the, royal family were expelled from the eountry. The last Sultan of Turkey, Mohammed VI had been forced to flee when his office was abolished some 18 months earlier. The disclosures regarding the poverty of the Turkish ex-royal family are made by Madam Izzat Pasha, the daughter of the Governor of Syria, who has arrived in India to plead the cause of these Ottoman outcasts. Hunt for Husbands. Not only is she seeking financial support from wealthy Indian Moslems, but she hopes to find suitable for 18 1 young Turkish girls belonging to the former roval house.

Two of them were recently married to the heir-apparent of the Nizam of Hyderabad and the son of Sir Ali Khan, member of the Indian Legislative Assembly. According to Madam Izzat, one of the of the sons of the ex-caliph, Prince Faruq, had often to go to bed hungry inf Nice, where he eked out a miserable existence. He died recently and there were no funds to send his body to a Moslem eountry for burial, according to the tradition of his ancestry. Sultan's Widow. "There is also in Nice," said Madam Izzat, "a widow of Sultan Mohammed VI who lives with her son and two. grandchildren in ahject poverty. , "So poor are they that father and j son have only one shirt between them. | They have to toss up to decide who shall wear it whenever they are invited anywhere. No Turk has ever given a penny to help the royal outcasts in their distress. I "The chief friends of this ill-fated j dynasty have been the Ni2am of HyI herabad and the Nawab of Bhopal, who i | have contributed generously towards | their assistancei"