Indian Rajah Dispels Myth

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 454, 8 September 1928, Page 11

Indian Rajah Dispels Myth

iVo Fabulous Wealth Or Lavish Spending

DUTY TO THEIR SUBJECTS

The British belief that Indian princes are fabulously wealthy potentates who sprinkle money round them—a belief that is bemg misused by Communists to undermine rule in Ijidia—was the subject of a statement made to the London “Daily Mail” by the Maharajah of Rajpipla.

The Maharajah of Rajpipla is one of the Indian princes who will jorm the delegation from the Chamber of Princes wbicb is to put their case before the Indian States Committee. Declaring that no greater good could accrue from the conference than that the British public should know the Indian princes as they really are, he said: “I have arrived. I am supposed to have 25 rooms that are embowered with the rarest roses, filled with the rarest scents, and decorated with the richest marbles and ivories, and to be dressed in the most gorgeous raiment glittering with the most costly gems. “It is believed, because an otherwise well-meaning British manufacturer who supplies a £I,OOO car to an Indian prince speaks of the £12,000 car that he has supplied. Let a prince order a favourite briar, and it becomes a £2OO meerschaum. Let him eat a sandwich and it becomes a meal of rare dishes served by mysteriously expert chefs. “It is good advertising, but it is had patriotism. “Roses, scents, marbles and ivories. That is what is said of all of us. No mention of the fact that I travel by London General Omnibus to save money. No mention of the fact that I go into a public-house and have a pint of bitter and a sandwich. This is true. I study expenditure to this extent. And I have the reward of meeting many beautiful characters in consequence. “I have a love of this country, and a love of the people in it, of its justice, fairness and methods, that will admit of no contradiction. We princes who strive and strive and strive to do our duty by your subjects and our Emperor find that the thoughtlessness of the people we love is our enemy. Saving Shillings “I do not know a maharajah on whom work is not making a merciless drain. I do not know a maharajah who can shed money in the way attributed to Indian princes. They have to weigh money before they spend. Many of them actually do consider shillings. “I have yet to meet the maharajah who wants to be surrounded by marbles and silks and precious stones, or who would be comfortable surrounded in this way. Believe me, he would be as uncomfortable as you would be surrounded by ridiculously ornate Victorian furniture. “I am not pleading poverty. I am pleading enlightenment. “There are maharajahs who control millions. What we control is not a personal fortune, but a reserve that will guarantee good education, good food, the health and well-being of our subjects. Enlightened princes have no surplus of money to waste. “How very ridiculous the idea that we spend millions a year! X am sorry to have to spend thousands, and that not on myself. My personal modest needs would not account for thousands.” The maharajah's rooms at the hotel number five. His staff, supposed to number 50, totalled two. The flowers in the suite numbered one carnation, which stood on a portable gramophone.