The Washington times., 1936-06-13

WoS Vic ASd GA1Ad11, AOolcIu pOI6Q-
tate with an income of $4,000, 900
a year, followed around Europe
by bejewelled, lacquered beauties
who wanted to marry him.
He forgot them all when he saw
the trim, comely, nicely-behaved
little Andree Carron. So he mar
ried her and gave her the Golden
Dawn Diamond, bigger than the
biggest chocolate drop in the
store. In jewels and silks, she was
in box at EPSON Downs as Ma
houd, the Aga Khan's 1O0-to-8 shot,
scored the third Derby victory for
his owner in the widest bedlam Of
crowd roars ever to mark that
exciting event. She is now the
Begun Aga Khan.
She sat with regal composure
in the box as the happy and vola-
tile potentate pranced out on the
track to lead his horse victoriously
back to the paddock. Such com.
posure always has been observable
in her conduct. She is the mis-.
treSs of a palace at Malabar Hill,
Bombay, an apartment near the
Bois de Boulogne in Paris, a villa
at LIE Bourget near Paris, a his
toric chateau near Chambery and
a great country estate in England.
NO TERRITORY
The transition to these splen-
dors from the candy shop seemed
easy and natural. Unlike Nancy
Miller, the Seattle girl who married
the Maharajah Of Indore, she did
not sacrifice her religion. She re-
mains a Catholic.
On January 19 Of this year, the
Aga Khan, at the age Of 81, cele-
brated the fiftieth anniversary of
his ascension to the throne of the
Imam, which makes him ruler of
from 10000, 900 to 30,000,000 per-
sons, although he is a ruler with
out a territory. His jubilee was
celebrated with unusual restraint
on account of the illness Of the
late King George, but there was
the customary annual weighing
ceremonial.
His Highness, which he is called
by British royal decree, is paid
each year by his weight in gold.
This year he weighed 23712
pounds, and the payment, at pre-
vailing gold prices, came to $125.'
625. Such a sum is trifling to
the affluent Aga Khan, and
after the weighing he distributes
it among poor children.
With the weighing goes the
ceremonial bath. The water from
the bathtub, put in thousands of
tiny phials and sold among the
faithful, helps make up the pay
ment for the gold.
The weighing ceremony is man.
aged with an eye to good theater.
There is no such dull business as
having the Aga Khan step on
modern scales, chalk up his
weight, figure the equivalent in
gold and hand him a check.
Instead, the ponderous Aga
Khan swings clear in one pan OF
a pair of ancient scales as richly
robed functionary weights the
other pan with gold bricks. When
they get a balance, the turbaned
dignitary tells the Aga Khan that
the gold is his. Which it is, to
throw at the birds if he wants to.
The Aga Khan is a man of great
integrity, highly esteemed by his
many millions of followers, and
there is never a thought that he
might have bar of railroad iron
somewhere under his capacious
frock coat. But if we ever take
to paying off our leading politi-
clans that way. it might be just
as well to strip them down to a
bathing suit.
AS the world leader of the great
Ismaili sect, he organized Moslem
India as a political body. His spir.
itual and political principalities
include several states in India
and the Moslem countries of Iran,
Iraq and Afghanistan.
EMOTIONAL OUTLET
At just the moment when pan
Islam is stirring within the con-
fines of the empire, to the dis
quietude of Downing Street, it is
an unusually happy event when
the Aga Khan wins the Derby. All
in all, his not inconsiderable bulk,
sitting on the lid of empire, comes
in handy just now and there have
been no sour notes in the thun-
dering acclaim of the Aga Khan'S
victory.
That, no doubt, is partly due to
the fact that the British regard
him as a Jolly good sort" He is
generous, jovial, a thorough-going
sportsman and entirely accept
able to the courtiers and COM
monerS of England, where he was
educated and where he spends
much of his time.
One wonders if pageantry, cere-
mony, great and gaudy perSonages,
ancient tradition, trumpets and
trumpery, Golden Dawn diamonds
and the like provide England with
psychological releases which help
to keep her sensible and good ma
tured. In the view of this writer.
a lot of such dreadful alterations
as those revealed in the expose Of
this Black Legion outfit come from
VNIoiVo IANS.aJoVI1