The Alamo may be a shrine and a monument to Texans, but to a sheikh from Saudi Arabia it might just be a nice present for his son. According to the San Antonio News, Sheikh Masoud Al-Sharif Al Hamden wrote to a lawyer in Texas explaining that his son learned how to fly in San Antonio and while there used to visit the Alamo and became enchanted with it. “Please contact the proper people,” the sheikh wrote, “and see if we can buy it. I want to present it as a gift to my son.”
The lawyer said he would write the sheikh to explain the problem involved. “I’ll suggest to him to think of something else, maybe a Texas ranch, to present to his son,” the lawyer said. Some wag suggested that it might be nice if the ranch had a little oil well on its property. The sheikh’s son was in Texas under a program for foreign officers training at American military bases. Four Air Force bases and Fort Sam Houston are located in the area.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
