OCR Text |
Show I MOSLEM LEADER LOYAL TO BRITAIN - Great Britain was pleased and immensely relieved by the action of that famous Indian dignitary, the Aga Khan, in directing the community of which he is the spiritual head to place their persoral services and resources unreservedly at the disposal of the British government, and in addition to this volunteering to serve as a private pri-vate in any infantry regiment of the Indian expeditionary force. For this prodigiously wealthy and largely Eu-ropeanized Eu-ropeanized native chieftain, as the spiritual leader of vast numbers of Mahometans in Western India, Central Cen-tral Asia and East Africa, is perhaps the greatest power of the Moslem world. Directly descended as he is from Ali the nephew of Mahomet himself, he is regarded by his followers almost as a god and is believed by many to bold the keys of heaven. Many of the curious privileges of his position DrQ nnt. however, exercised by the present prince. The territory over which the Aga Khan rules, as head of the Ismaelian sects, is not large, but the number of his followers is counted by the hundred thousand and to every one of them his word is law. So great is his influence, in fact, that his friendliness to British rule in India always has been of the greatest value to the government, and will be more so than ever in the present emergency |