Magic Carpet

Ibn Saud, Guardian of the Holy Places, King of Saudi Arabia, left his palace at Riyadh for a gazelle-&-bustard shoot in the flinty wilderness to the north. With him he took falcons, Ford convertibles and 2,000 attendants. At the green oasis of Hafar-el-Ats the hunting party pitched its tents, unrolled its rugs, settled down for a fat taste of the patriarchal monarch's favorite pastime.

One day brought an unlooked-for diversion. Higher than bustard ever flew, the wings of a DC-3 soared up from the south, circled Hafar-el-Ats's cool palms, slid down the desert air, rolled to a dusty stop on the hot sand. Out stepped a group of Americans led by bouncing, balding Major General Ralph Royce, retiring U.S.A.A.F. chief in the Middle East, and his affable successor, Brigadier General Benjamin F. Giles.

Fate. No mere whim but something more like destiny had whisked the Generals from Cairo to the arid heart of the Middle East. Aboard the transport they had stowed 3,000 lb. of pretty things: automatic rifles, ammunition, blowtorches, helmets, other samples of freshly arrived Lend-Lease for Ibn Saud.

Last December General Royce had been the King's guest. Now he had a chance to pipe in a bit more firmly the ties between the U.S. and the oil-rich King.

Search. When the U.S. Generals took off from Cairo with their wampum, they naturally assumed the King was in his capital. But when they arrived at Abadan on the Persian Gulf, the Generals learned that the King had gone ahunting. By the time they spotted Ibn Saud's party they had wandered 1,100-odd air miles.

Welcome. In the King's richly decked tent the Generals got a royal welcome. Ibn Saud liked the Lend-Lease pretties, gave a little Lend-Lease-in-Reverse: to each visitor an Arab costume, headgear and all; to the Generals, jewel-studded swords; to their aides, watches and daggers. The monarch, according to old Arab custom, pressed his guests to stay at least three days. But the Generals were not on vacation. Two hours after their arrival they said farewell, climbed aboard their modern magic carpet, turned Cairoward.

Six hundred miles west of Hafar-el-Ats, the U.S. presented Ibn Saud's Arabia with another, even more persuasive Lend-Lease cargo. At sweaty, sultry Jidda on the Red Sea, where legend has buried Eve and the main road runs to Mecca, an American freighter unloaded 7,000,000 silver coins (riyals), minted in Philadelphia and valued at $1,250,000.

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