Saudi Arabia: Comeback

At the lowly art of bookkeeping, King Saud of Saudi Arabia is no match for his more cultivated younger brother, the lean and able Crown Prince Feisal. Two years ago, after Saud's munificent handouts to himself and some 300 assorted princes of the realm had brought even oil-rich Saudi Arabia deeply into debt, an angry family council forced the King to hand over the effective reins of government to Feisal. Under the guidance of experts on loan from the International Monetary Fund, Feisal proceeded to balance the budget by severe maneuvers, even slashing the allowances of pampered princelings and forbidding, for a period of six months, the import of a single Cadillac. Under Feisal, both prices and the public debt declined, while the rial stabilized at about five to the dollar.

Unprincely Manner. But Faisal's austerity did not sit well with many Saudis. Budget cuts brought to a near standstill King Saud's busy building of palaces and impressive government offices in Riyadh, and grumbling artisans and tradesmen quit town by the thousands. And Feisal's stern watchdog role took a heavy personal toll. Troubled for years by a stomach ailment, he went on a liquid diet and an 18-hour workday. Snapped one Saudi who recently visited Feisal: "His dingy office was piled right to the ceiling with files, files, files. He insisted on signing everything personally, even visas. Was this the way for a Bedouin prince to live?"

While Feisal stuck to his ledgers, King Saud practiced the gritty game of desert politics that he had learned on horseback at the side of his one-eyed warrior father Ibn Saud. First he moved grandly to the left of his brother Feisal, intrigued the kingdom's newspaper editors with talk of a transition from feudal to parliamentary rule (TIME, May 30). Then he flew to West Germany, drew out $50 million which he had providently tucked away in a bank there, came home and set off on royal safaris across the desert, dispensing largesse to tribal chieftains. Over the past twelve months, Saud has married himself to 100 delighted Bedouin maidens, thus delighting their powerful tribal fathers as well. Since he is allowed only four official wives by the Koran, the King scrupulously divorced one old wife before each new marriage, pensioning her off at $2,500 a month. Such heavy alimony payments made the King chafe all the more at his Feisal-imposed personal budget of only $30 million a year.

The King was annoyed, too, at Feisal's paying court to the United Arab Republic's Nasser; Saud resents Nasser's claim to be leader of all the Arabs, has always rather fancied the title for himself. Often the royal brothers quarreled, and twice Feisal offered his resignation. Each time Saud wept, Feisal wept, and the 38 other royal brothers beat their breasts and declared that a rift might destroy the house of Saud. But last week, when Saud saw that his royal allowance under his brother's new budget was hardly any more generous than last year's, he had had enough. Secure in the knowledge that the tribal chiefs were behind him, the King issued royal decree No. 35, dissolving Feisal's government, and royal decree No. 36, which declared that Saud had personally taken over the premiership and all government power.