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course the President of the Univer–
sity was there, as well as most Vice
Presideots.
But now carne the highlight - the
meeting with the Emperor. Our en–
tire party had been invited to come
along with me, including Mr. Hunt–
ing and the ladies. This had been
unexpected. It was the first time any
of the ladies accompanying me - or
any except Mr. Rader and Professor
Gotoh, had gone with me on a per–
sonal meeting with a head of state,
it was quite an experience for them.
The meeting had been set for 4:30
Tuesday afternoon. At that time we
arrived at the Jubilee Palace of the
Emperor. There were, of course, at
the gates, and at the entrance of the
palace the usual battery of armed
aod colorfully uniformed guards.
We were met at the entrance by
aides
in
military attire, with the
President of the University and the
Minister of Education.
We were escorted up a long grand
stairway with heavy red carpet. One
of the aides, taking my arm, cau–
tioned me to "take it easy," because
of the high altitude and length of
the stairs.
Arriving on the upper level, we
tumed into an ornate and very long
room. There was a wide strip of red
carpet down the center, the length
of the room, and at the far end,
seated behind a table with ftowers,
was the tone figure of His Imperial
Majesty, the world-famous Emperor
Haile Selassie.
I
led the way down
the length of the room, and was
warmly greeted, as was the eotire
party on being introduced one at a
time.
1 then presented the Emperor
wíth a gift of Steuben crystal, and
also with the framed picture of the
2500-year-old seal, with the engrav–
ing of the lion, "The Lion of the
Tribe of Judah." This seemed to
please
him
very mucb, as
J
ex–
plaíned about our archaeological
project, and our mutual Israelí
friends.
The university President acted as
interpreter.
1
then began to mention
sorne of the things the Emperor and
I have in common. We are virtually
38
the same age- he is just eight days
older than
l.
But 1 mentioned that
bis hearing seemed better than
mine. We both enjoyed long mar–
riages, aod both are now widowers.
The Empress died in 1962, my wife
in
1967, after almost 50 years of
marriage.
Then
1
mentioned that I have the
genealogy ofmy ancestry, and that
1
too, aro a direct descendant of King
Solomon of ancient Israel.
"We/1 WHY NOT?"
blurted out
D
id not this man, who
claims to be a direct
descendant of King
Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba, prophesy that if
the League of Nations did
not stop Mussolini's
Fascist armies before they
invaded Ethiopia that
al/ Western Europe would
be invaded?
the Emperor spontaneously, without
waiting for the interpreter to tell
him what
I
had said.
At that responsive quip we all
burst out in laughter. From that
point the interpreter had very little
todo.
Early in our talk, His Majesty
mentioned that he was well aware,
as were the others in the Ethiopian
govemment, that
1
was the spiritual
leader of a large worldwide follow–
ing. During the first fifteen or
twenty minutes of our meeting, he
tended to answer whatever
1
said
with a philosophical observation,
apparently inspired by Solomon's
Proverbs, which 1 rather deduced he
has studied continuously and reli–
giously.
The general sum and substance of
our conversation revolved around
the basic fundamental principies of
world conditions, evils and prob–
lems, and how in our work we are
putting solutions and true values to
actual practice, setting a living ex–
ample of
THE WAY
to peace and
happiness, both in our college caro–
puses, and in the Church through-
out the world. He took keen interest
in my explanation of the two diver–
gent philosophies or
ways-of-life,
which
1
call the way of
"GET"
prac–
tíced in this world, and the way of
"GIVE"
which leads to peace, hap–
piness and success.
"Philosophy, and moral philoso–
phy," he commented, "is com–
mendable , but it is far more
commendable to put into actual
practice the principies upon which
the phi losophy is based." He said he
recognized fully our achievements
of both our institutions putting into
practice
THE WA Y
that we preach
worldwide.
While we were talking, servants
brought tea and little cakes. The
Emperor began breaking off little
pieces of cake or cookie, which his
pet dog, a tiny chihuahua presented
to him by Mao Tse-Tung, picked up
promptly.
The Emperor gave no indication
or move toward terminating our
visit, but after sorne forty-five
minutes,
1
felt it proper to do so,
and rose to my feet, expressing what
an honor and delight the meeting
had been. Then Haile Selassie
presented me with an already auto–
graphed full color photograph of
himself, with a sterling silver frame,
bearing his Imperial insignia cen–
tered over the top of the frame.
Also, he gave me another duplicate
photograph, (not autographed) for
publication.
Then
1
received a real surprise.
Out of a beautiful leather case,
handed
him
by an aide, the Em–
peror took an extremely beautiful
gold bracelet which he presented to
me as bis personal
gift
to my daugh–
ter, whom he had expected to be
with me. ln the center of the brace–
let was a solid gold coin (24 karat),
made 43 years ago
in
celebration of
his coronation. The coin had the
Emperor's face engraved on it. The
rest of the bracelet, except for the
clasp at the undersíde, was 22 karat
gold, with beautiful garlands en–
graved with exquisite craftsman–
ship. Jewelers have since evaluated
it as the finest gold bracelet they
had ever seen.
PLAIN TRUTH December 1973