Sultan Muskrat

Hottest city in the world is reputedly the Persian Gulf port of Muscat, capital of the arid little (82,000 sq. mi.) independent Sultanate of Oman, where the average rainfall is only 3 1/2 in. a year. In September 1833, U. S. Special Agent Edmund Roberts visited Muscat to sign a treaty with His Majesty Seyed Syeed Bin, Sultan of Muscat. In addition to reciprocal, most-favored-nation treatment of imports & exports, it provided that U. S. citizens rescued from ships wrecked on Oman's rocky coast must be entertained at the Sultan's expense. When he departed from Oman in the U. S. sloop Peacock, Envoy Roberts left behind an invitation for the Sultan to return his call in Washington.

In Washington last week, Envoy Roberts' call was finally returned by Sultan Seyed Syeed Bin's plump, brown-skinned, 27-year-old descendant, Muscat and Oman's Sultan Saiyid Said bin Taimur. Having traveled in the U. S. for three weeks incognito as Mr. Said, the Sultan managed to reach town one day ahead of Albania's Princesses Myzeyen, Ruhije and Maxhide, resumed his royal status in Washington's Union Station where he emerged from his train dressed in native costume of brown robe, white undershirt, jeweled turban and dagger. Promptly and rudely nicknamed "Sultan Muskrat" by Washington reporters, Oman's monarch naturally received the same amount of official attention that would have gone to England's George VI. After a 21-gun salute and exhibition drill from the Third Cavalry and 16th Field Artillery, he was guest of honor at a 35-place luncheon at the White House where the President wore morning clothes, then at an elaborate State Department dinner given by Secretary Cordell Hull who undoubtedly wishes that modern trade treaties could be as simply negotiated as they were in 1833. Next day, flanked by an aide-de-campand a secretary who looked like a tar-brushed Groucho Marx, the Sultan held a press conference. Overwhelmingly discreet, his reply to almost every question--including inquiries as to why he had stopped playing tennis and what he thought of U. S. women--was "I can't answer that."

In Muscat, young Sultan Saiyid Said bin Taimur has a $225,000-a-year salary, a harem with many wives, a Ford car which he drives up & down the barren country's sole 30-mile highway. His Highness Saiyid Said bin Taimur has ruled since 1932 when at his coming of age his father, who hated his job so much that he stayed in Muscat only one month a year, abdicated, retired to Japan. Having amazed Washington for three days last week, Sultan Saiyid Said removed his robes, put on street clothes, departed for New York.

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