MIDDLE EAST: Fence-Mending

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One morning last week, Transjordan's King Abdullah, in khaki Arab Legion uniform and a black lambskin kalpak which added some inches to his height, stepped from a plane at Cairo's Almaza Field. He was warmly bussed by Egypt's hulking King Farouk. All was friendly, in a regal way. For two days they talked together, ate together. Together they went to the Mohamed Ali Mosque on the night of mid-Shaaban, when Moslems appeal to God for a happy fate. Together they chanted: "Allah save us from any calamities that we know and those we don't know."

Of his talks with King Farouk, Abdullah said little, but that little in elevated language: "I am pleased to declare that the conversations . . . marked perfect concordance of our views [on] Palestine." But other Arabs knew that Farouk frowned on any Palestine settlement which would leave Abdullah in control of the Arab area. Egypt did not want a Greater Palestine, or a greater Abdullah, for that matter. And if Arabs were going to carve Palestine, Egypt would demand a slice of the southern desert.

One of Abdullah's objects was to prevent such potential quarrels. He planned other talks. In Cairo Abdullah summoned Haj Amin el Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, his old rival for control of Arab Palestine, talked with him for 40 minutes. It was their first meeting in eleven years. At week's end, Abdullah was off to see King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, who had driven Abdullah's father from the throne of Hejaz 24 years ago. Last week Abdullah glowed: "I am very happy about this visit to my brother King ... I consider this a blessing from God." Arabs hoped that Abdullah's journey would bridge the widest rift in the Arab world.

The next port of call on Abdullah's fence-mending tour was Bagdad, for talks with his nephew, Regent Abdul Illah. From his swing through the Arab lands Abdullah might return with authority to compromise with the Jews—or with plans for a renewed war.