INDIAN POTENTATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1939, Page 7

INDIAN POTENTATE

THE AGA KHAN A SUAVE DIPLOMAT BIG ROLE AT GENEVA. RECOGNITION OF ITALIAN CONQUEST. One man stopped Haile Selassie when he came before the Council of the League of Nations, to prevent Great Britain from getting recognition for Italy's conquest of his empire, writes John McCarthy in ‘"Ken.” For a time it looked as though Selassie would be successful, for he had the support of Bolivia, China. Russian and New Zealand.

Then the Aga Khan arrived at Geneva. and the tide turned in Britain’s favour. The Aga Khan HI., British agent extraordinary, helped Lord Halifax in persuading the various Council members to ignore Haile Selassie’s protests and enable Britain to keep its promise to Italy, to work for the recognition of the Italian Conquest of Ethiopia. For more than 40 years in all parts of the world, the Aga Khan has rendered invaluable services to the British Crown. His orders to his Moslem followers to withdraw from Ghandi’s “passive resistance” campaign broke up that formidable Indian rebellion a few years ago. Similar splendid aid has he rendered in Africa. Persia, Arabia and in Europe. In return for his co-operation the British have made the Aga Khan an almost fabulous figure in the modern world today. In the West, Aga Khan is known as a sauve, shrewd diplomat and publicist —an able financier with business investments- returning him profits running into the millions annually. In governmental and financial circles in London, Paris, the Hague, Berlin, and Geneva, the name of the Aga Khan looms large. As a sportsman and breeder of prize-winning horse, he is hailed at all important turf meeting in England, Ireland and France.

A BELOVED PROPHET. In the East, the Aga Khan is a mighty 'potentate, and a beloved prophet, who is repeatedly honoured at his home in India. The Aga Khan does not rule a mile of Indian territory and his house is a modest one in a suburb of Bombay—yet his decrees are heeded and faithfully adhered to by millions of followers in India, Persia, Arabia, and in Asia..

For the Aga Khan is a direct descendant from Mohammed the Prophet and the religious head of the Ismalian sect of Moslems. As Pontiff of the Moslems, the Aga Khan rivals even the Pope of Rome in his complete control over the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of his followers. His* great religious power rests with his right to excommunicate any followers. Catholics have been known to survive excommunication, but no Moslem. HIGH TAXES COLLECTED. The Pope in his collections of Peter’s Pence must rely upon his individual follower’s generosity. Not so the Aga Khan. Every member of his Ismalian sect must contribute two per cent of his annual income, while richer ones are taxed as high as ten per cent. In addition, there are special levies. Once a year the Aga Khan actually receives his weight in gold. A short, stout,, swarthy man with bulging eyes, the 63-year-old Aga Khan ■weighs approximately 16 stone... Figuring at £4 an ounce of gold bullion, he" receives about £15,700. Even his bathing water is saved and sold to his followers at £1 a bottle. Various estimates have been made of his annual income. These vary from £170,000 to more than £2,000,000.

CAREFUL INVESTMENTS. . Through the years, the Aga Khan has invested his money in many dividendpaying enterprises. His office door is open to any money-making proposition, provided the promoter can convince him in the first five minutes of the interview that the scheme is practical and profitable. ’lf the promoter fails to do that in the allotted initial five minutes, he is quickly ushered out. His hereditary position does not account for the Aga Khan. In India, which for 600 years has been ruled, and is still ruled in part by Moslems, his family is parvenu. In a land where monarchs, Moslems among them, still enjoy life and death absolutism over millions, the Aga Khan has no principality nor has his family ever had one. The explanation probably is that the Aga Khan enjoys politics and the Rajahs with their tradition of absolutism abhor it. HEIR TO A DYNASTY. I The Aga Khan is the heir-to-powei of a dynasty founded by a vigorous grandfather. About 100 years age Hasam-Ali-Shah, a leader in Central Persia, rebelled, fled to India and arrived in Bombay with an entourage and some wealth. The present Aga Khan is his grandson. A Persian had certain advantages among Indian Moslems, Persia was the traditional seat of their culture. .Persian was the court language of India. Hasam took advantage of all this. Hi moved in in a big way, exhibiting a dazzling genealogy of direct descent from the Prophet. He established himself as head of the Khoja community. The British recognised him as their man. They gave him the title of “His Highness” although he was merely a civilian resident of Bombay. Hasam became Aga Khan I.

A HOLY WAR CALLED. The British remembered the Aga Khan’s remarkable heredity in 1915 when Turkey entered the World War on the side of the Central Powers. The Sultan called for a jahad. a hobwar. The present Aga Khan and other leaders of Islam in India told the Indian Moslems to ignore it. The Aga Khan, who had been a talented publicist from the time he finished his education in England, did a bettor job than the other Indian princes. Every mention of his name by the British propaganda machine coupled it with his remarkably direct descent from Islam’s founder.

For a time the Aga Khan would go no nearer London than Paris. His pronouncements released in India veered dangerously close to declarations for Indian independence Then in 1920 King George V called him to London at the insistence of Lloyd George and made him a Knight Commander of the Victorian Order.

His appointment as Privy Councillor came after his successful opposition to Mahatma Gandhi’s non-co-opera-tion policy. His elevation to head of the Indian delegation to Geneva and his election as President of the League of Nations Assembly came after his efforts in favour of the India House version of what should be a constitution for India. HOW HE KEEPS FIT.

• Some years ago the Aga Khan revealed his rules for constant training. Fruit only for breakfast. “Drop at leas; a couple of meals each week,” the Aga Khan advised. Golf and tennis are not enough. Roadwork once a day, either a run of a mile or two or a ten-mile walk. "Even in India,” said the Aga Khan, “where I work 18 hours a day, 1 always devote at least 20 minutes for strenuous physical exercise.”

At Monte Carlo he was a familial figure, jogging along, swathed in flannels, sweating like a stoker. He was then over 50. Now at 63 he has relaxed a little on the roadwork but continues setting-up exercises. One might think that the Aga Khan would avoid reducing exercises since he is paid his weight in gold every year.

THREE MARRIAGES. The standard English biographical service lists three marriages for the Aga Khan, the first to an Indian woman who died in 1934 at Bombay. His authorised biography written by an admiring member of his entourage lists only his two marriages in the West. In 1911 he married the Princess Therese an Italian sculptress who had made appearances on the English stage. She died in 1926. She was the mother of Prince All Khan, his oldest son, who married the Hon Joan Barbara Yarde-Buller daughter of the late Lord Churston and former wife of Noel Evelyn Bulkeley Guinness of the Dublin brewery family. In 1930, the Aga Khan married Mik Andree Josephine Carron, daughter ol a French confectioner and an exceptionally beautiful woman. In the las' annual poll of Paris dressmakers fothe ten best-dressed women of the world Begum Aga Khan rated third and was topped only by the Duchess ol Windsor, who was first, and the Duchess of Kent, second.

The Aka Khan today is just as active as ever. He is still a very good patron at the gaming tables at Deauville, Cannes and Monte Carlo. He still entertains on a lavish scale. When recently nominated for the presidency of the League of Nations Assembly, Aga Khan gave a ball for more than three thousand guests. He still commutes regularly between Bombay and Europe and participates actively in all matters, religious and political, concerning not only India, but the entire British Empire,