The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1913.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3784, 20 March 1913, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1913.

The startling nows of the {loath of •King George of Greece, by. the'

"Uneasy Lies the

among their number Queen Alexandra, a sister of the deceased King. Although some years have now elapsed since the life of a monarch was threatened in this way, several * attempts at the assassination of high personages in various countries have been made within even the past few months. It will be recalled, for instance, that ex-President Roosevelt received a shot wound in the course of the recent U.S. presidential campaign. Even more serious, however, was the attempt on the life of Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of .India, on the occasion' of his official entry into the nevv capital. It is also not open to question but that President Madero, of Mexico, was murdered. The last previous monarch to lose his life by assassination was Alexander 1., King of Servia, who, together with his Queenwife Draga, was killed in their own palace by conspirators some ten years ago. Going back one comes to the death by assassination of King Humbert 1., of Italy, some three years earlier. Then, again, Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, shared a similar fate at the hands of an anarchist in 1898. Other monarohs who were deprived of life at the hand of the assassin during the nineteenth century, include Paul, Czar of Russia, Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Turkey, and Nasr-ed-Deem, Shall of Persia. Within the same period, however, several presidents have in a similar manner lost their lives, notably President- Lincoln, of the United States; President Garfield, of the United States; President Carnot, of France; President Idiarte, of Uruguay ; President McKinley, of the United States; and, as we have said, President Madero, of Mexico. In the case of King George, of Greece, this (it may be recalled) was not the first occasion on which his life was attempted, for, in IS9B, an outrage of this character was happily frustrated. He ascended the throne in 1863. King Otlio, the first sovereign of modern Greece, had been dsposecl by a revolution, and the now departed monarch, then Prince William George cf Schleswig-Holstein-Londerburg-Glueksburg, whom Great Britain had designated a suitable candidate for the vacant throne, was elected by the National Assembly with the title of ‘‘George 1., King of the Hellenes.” His lengthy reign did, indeed, .witness many stirring events of great interest to the nation over whom lie ruled. Chief among the number was the unrest caused by the Russo-Turkish war in 1877 ; the Nationalist agitation in 1896; the Cretan crisis, and unsuccessful war with Turkey in 1897; and the present struggle in the Balkans. As regards King George’s personal characteristics, it is, of course, well-known that the most notable was his genius for finance. Of him it lias been said that he would have been far more at ease from the beginning of tilings in a counting bouse than on a throne! He was (it is also well-known) very fortunate in his choice of a Queen-wife for Olga Constantinovna Grand Hueliess of Russia, and Queen of Greece, is generally regarded as a model queen, and, indeed, in some quarters is designated ‘‘the most queenly queen of Europe.” The lieir apparent to the Throne is Prince Constantine, Duke of Sparta, who was the eldest son of the royal union. He was born in 18” and, at the age of 31 years, married Princess Sophia, sister of the present German Emperor.