The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-02-05
ROBBED, STARVING
 KHAN OF KH|VA
 ID DIE IN RAGS
Was Until Few Months Ago. One of Richest of Mo- hammedan Rulers of
 Central Asia
By Associated Press hahr.fro-tr


 ragged, starving and forgotten in the big concentration camp of Pokrow- sky, a few miles distant from this city, Is the fate of the Hevdiar, Khan of khiya, who, until few months ago, was one of the richest of the Mohammedan rulers of central Asta. As he is nearly 80 years old. he may die there.
 Hevdiar, successor to Tamerlane the Great and Genghis Khan, who ruled from China to Germany, in the Mid dle Ages, is pure-blooded Uzbek Turk, to whom the Sultan of Turkey Is mere modern upstart. He has been brought to his present plight through the revolutions engineered by the Moscow soviet in Russian Tur- kestan' aided by Enver Pasha, recent " denounced by Mustapha Kemal fasha as the arch-traitor of Turkey
 The treatment of the Khan of hhlVa' not yet widely known by peo- Die of the Mohamm edan world. is ex- pected in time to widen the riff mat has long threatened between the Rus sian soviet and the Mohammedans of India and the old Turkish dominions. The Russians have long been hated for their conquest of Khiva, Bokhara and the rest of the territory known for the past 60 years as Russian Tur- kestan.
 Fought for Centuries
 For two centuries the Russians tried in vain to conquer these war like peoples, and only in 1873 was Khiva humbled and it's Khans made subject princes of Russia But they retained their religious influence and their vast wealth, and when they came to the Russian imperiaI court at Petrograd their presents in gold and jewels surpassed easily the treas ures of that gorgeous court
 For the past two years the soviet influence has been slowly tightening its hold on old Russian Turkestan, under General Doutoff, aided by 10O,- 900 German war prisoners. First. soviet revolutionary committee wal formed at Tashkent, after the ap- proved bolshevik manner. and later at Bokhara and finally at Khiva. These committees in turn gave way to the formation of soviet republics, as In Baku and Tiflis, al the point Of the red army's bayonet.
 The Emir of Bokhara was reduced to a figurehead, though still held as possible religious successor to the Sultan of Turkey.
 Hevdiar was unseated in his rule by the new order, but when his ad- visers showed him how the palace walls were falling about him, he got together the choicest of his inherited jewefs, his favorite wives, large stock of his royal robes, together with 400 pounds avoirdspois of solid gold, ordered a. train at Bokhara an1 started overland to reach it. At the depot in Bokhara, the cheka, or secret police. swooped down upon him. robbed him of his wives, his jewels and gold, and made him prisoner, to- gether with his 20-year-old son and heir apparent.
 Both were put aboard the train, under heavy guard, and sent to Mos COW. to the old convent prison of Polk rowsky, where they have since been
 Maintains Proud Bearing
 With heavy white beard, the Khan maintains his proud bearing and still looks the part of a great ruler in ex- lie. Silent and uncomplaining, after the manner of his people. he some times attends the concerts organized for the prisoners.
 In answer to his request to the so- viet Khiva mission for food, he was sent exactly one pound of bread.
 Tt Is the will of Allah" said the Khan, when the bread came His son has fared somewhat better. He does odd jobs, such as scrubbing floors, for the more fortunate prisoners whose friends send them food. and in this way keeps soul and body to- gether. .. fr