Santa Claus

In squalid, sweltering Muscat last week the Sultan of Oman was glad within him: from Washington had come good news. Henry Lewis Stimson, the faraway, almost mythical Secretary of State of the U. S. was in a mood to play Santa Claus. His gift: revision of a treaty into which Sultan Seyed Syeed Bey was inveigled by shrewd Yankee traders 97 years ago. which provided that U. S. citizens should always be welcomed to Oman's ports, be free to sell or barter their wares without being charged a tariff duty of more than 5%. Also included was a clause providing hospitality to U. S. mariners shipwrecked on Oman's shores.

Shipwrecks of U. S. vessels on the coast of Oman being few indeed, the Sultan is content to let this Yankee clause stand.

But he does want--he desperately wants--to collect more than a measly 5% on U. S. imports. Vith the treasury at Muscat running perilously low, representatives of Oman recently appealed as suppliants to the Great White President and his Statesman Stimson.

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