Foreign News: Death of a King

One hundred wives and some 700 exclusively female attendants mourned, last week, the death of their eccentric Lord: His Majesty Samdach Préah Bat Kampuchéa Sisowath, 87, King of Cambodia, and reputedly the oldest monarch in the world.* Because King Sisowath’s little realm on the Gulf of Siam became a French protectorate in 1863, he has been relieved of all obligation to rule, while retaining every pomp andthe privilege of reigning. Not unnaturally, this puppet king devoted all his virtually total leisure to a single classic aim: the pursuit of happiness.Royal Day. Seven diversions, each ceremoniously performed, served to pass the royal day: 1) Slumber, of which King Sisowath was somewhat inordinately fond; 2) Meditation, in which he formally indulged before and after slumber; 3) Gourmandise and Degustation, two arts learned, by King Sisowath from his French protectors and practiced by him in as great distinction as possible to mere “eating and drinking”; 4) Bathing, a sumptuous ceremony, observed by the entire court; 5) opium smoking by His Majesty;

6) Music and Dancing, both performed not by King Sisowath but by a special corps of female musicians and dancers permanently resident (as were the ladies-in-waiting and various wives) in small villas scattered throughout the grounds of the Royal Palace;

7) Admission of Royal Wives to Audience with King Sisowath, who had the reputation of being cruelly and unusually jealous of his favorites.

Great Lake. Most quaint and curious is the annual series of natural events which provides fish for Cambodians without putting them to the trouble of fishing, and gives occasion for a great festival. Events: 1) The River Mekong becomes swollen by freshets and overflows into a large body of water in Western Cambodia known as the Great Lake. 2) The King, court and populace spend three days in public rejoicing at this event. 3) The Waters of the Great Lake gradually recede into the Mekong, leaving innumerable small ponds in which are stranded at the mercy of the natives many thousands of fish.

Friends of France. Because the French have brought progress and civilization to Cambodia very gradually, and with much tact, the reigning house and the people are staunch friends of France. During the War thousands of native soldiers and laborers were recruited in Cambodia for service in Europe, and proved themselves loyal to the tutelary power. France, in turn, has brought street cars, busses, electric light and telephone to Pnom-Penh, the Cambodian capital. Thus it was in a land where East and West blend suavely that Death came, as it must to all men, to King Sisowath.

*Leading monarchs in descending order of age: GUSTAP V (Sweden) 69 GEORGE V (Britain) 62 FUAD I VITTORIO (Egypt) EMANUELE III (Italy) 59 57 HAAKON CHRISTIAN VII X (Norway) (Denmark & Iceland)…. 56 55 ALBERT I WlLHELMINA (Belgium) HELENA PAULINE MARIA 52 ALFONSO XIII (Netherlands) (Spain) 41 46 ALEXANDER I (Jugoslavia) 38 BORIS III (Bulgaria) 33 HIROHITO PRAJADHIPOK (Japan) (Siam) 33 26 MICHAEL I (Rumania) “”…,…. 5