Foreign News: Bili Putsch

HEJAZ

Arabia was at peace last week. Hard-hitting Ibn Saud, King of the Hejaz, had stopped a brief but bloody revolt. Correspondents hurried down to Dhaba on the Red Sea to see what all the shooting was for. They got there at dusk as the desert heat was lifting. A crowd of little boys in dirty, torn abas were shrilly playing football on the dusty plain. Their football did not bounce. It was the lacerated, eyeless head of Hamad Ibn Ra fada, defeated chieftain of the Bili tribe.

Two months ago Hamad Ibn Rafada crossed the Hejaz border from Transjordania at the head of 800 armed Bedouins, swearing that he would march to Mecca, depose Ibn Saud, set up a new prince of the old Hashimite dynasty. Ibn Saud sent 1,000 followers out to meet him near Jebel Shammarwith machine guns, armored cars. After a nine-hour battle the Bili were routed, 360 were killed. Hamad Ibn Rafada was decapitated, his head sent to Dhaba where the boys got a new plaything.