A WITNESS TO HISTORY

This is an interesting story from Sunday's St. Petersburg Times, the rememberance of Coquing Key resident Thomas Hilliard, who on this day in 1945 was a bosun's mate on the USS Murphy when President Franklin D. Roosevelt, fresh from the Yalta Conference and only two months before his death, met with Saudi Arabian King Abdel Aziz to begin forging a relationship based on the geopolitics of the day...but mostly about oil.

What is interesting here is the king's quirks. Having never been outside his native land, he refused to sleep in a cabin onborad, or even walk on the iron deck. Talk about issues!

The remaining sailors who served on that ship will be noted at a luncheon today to be attended also by the king's gransdon, Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who is the son of the crown prince.

BTW: An interesting quote from King Abdel Aziz at the time regarding the issue of Jews relocating to Palestine to form what is now Israel:

"Give the Jews and their descendants the choicest lands and homes of the Germans who had oppressed them."

The Saudi monarch was not keen on the issue, and refused to help Roosevelt on Jewish settlements in the region.