Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-27

@ HE following is prleI summary
of the most important news OF
the world for the seven days
L ended January %:
ARABIA.-It is gratifying to be told
that Ibn Saud, Sultan of Nejd, King
of the Hejas, boss of the greater part
of the Arabian Peninsula (area, about
1000 900 square miles,, and head of the
Wahhabites, the dourest of the funda-
mentalists of Islam, has at last, by
clever employment of an ancient expedi-
ent, firmly re-eStablished his ascend
ancy over his wild tribal chiefs, the
which ascendancy had for years past
been in very dubious light.
According to this account, the chief
causes of dissatisfaction against Ibn
Saud were certain Western innovations
introduced or connived at by him, and
his refusal to countenance raids across
his northern borders into Iraq or Trans
Jordan. The raiders, OF course, claimed
that their little efYairs were undertaken
for the greater glory of Allah in a spirit
of disintereSted piety, but Ibn Saud
insisted that their object was loot, and
loot alone, and he complained that they
kept him ;ntolerably embroiled with the
neighbor states, including the British
mandatory authorities.
So Ibn Saud assembled his chiefs at
his capital, Riyadh. in Neid, very near
the center of the peninsula. The situa-
ton, he told them, had become unen-
durable. What with internal chickering's
and raids over the borders, they had
made his position one absolutely not to
be desired. Therefore they must find
another. ruler in place of Ibn Saud,
resigned
The effect was what he had contem-
plated. The chiefs were really thunder
struck. They knew quite we'll that there
was no other fit to f1ll his shoes, that he
was one OF a million-one, as Lord
Raglan observed of him, of the true
Caliph mettle. An impulse seized the
assembly as 1t had been one man. The
universal voice implored Ibn Saud to
retain the scepter With proper show
of reluctance he consented. So that's
over. ..--.-
TIBET-Tibet appears to be in
condition of much admired confusion,
not to say anarchy. From the time of
Kublai Khan middle of thirteenth CEN
tury until the fall of the Manchu
dynasty in China, the greater part of
Tibet was theocracy of sorts ruled
by the Dalai Lama, or Grand Lama,
from MS palace Zone OF the wonders
of the world) on Potala Hill at HASA,
host Of abbots exercising both spirit
ual and temporal rule over yamaserais
or monaSterieS, and attached domains
being subject to him, these including
the chutuktus, or abbots of the greater
mOnasteries. and the chubilkhans, or
abbotS of the lesser monasteries. The
chutuktus, each of whom is an incarna-
ton of one of the celestial Bodhisats,
remarkably correspond in many re-
spectS to the Roman cardinals. Secu-
lar affairs were administered by a re-
gent Ian eccleSiaStic), assisted by four
| ministers of state, all under the super
vision of two imperial Chinese resi-
dents For the Grand LamaS admitted
the temporal nverlordship of the EN-
| perors of China.
The considerable parts of Tibet not
ruled from Lhasa were ruled by tribal
chiefs admitting Chinese sovereignty.
Rather considerable Chinese <orces
were generally garrisoned in the coun.
| try. The Chinese SuZerainty was not
uniformly exercised; over some periods
it was very loosely asserted, at other
times strictly. But think we may say
that on the whole it worked for Tibet's
benefit,
| When, in 1911, the Manchu dynasty
fell, the Tibetans elected the Chinese
civil authorities and the Chinese SOL
diery, and they have since raaiptainsd