SAUDI ARABIA: Ladies First

On a royal excursion to the Hejaz, King Ibn Saud finally put to use the C-47 transport plane which had come as a gift from Franklin Roosevelt.

First he tried it out on some traveling companions, 27 females (two planeloads) of the royal harem. Four U.S. flyers (who had stayed in Arabia to train the native crew) goggled as brawny slaves lugged the ladies' luggage aboard. But when worldly Prince Feisal, performing a filial chore, shepherded the passengers into the cabin, the crewmen looked the other way. They had been carefully briefed: to stare at the veiled and giggling travelers was to invite death.

At Taif the chattering women piled out and into waiting automobiles. Riding past the nose of the plane, each & every one took a bold, veiled look at the Americans, who got a good look too. Then the C-47 went back to fetch the King. Ibn Saud, it was said, right royally enjoyed his first trip aloft.