SAUDI ARABIA: Seat for the Mighty

At 65, King Ibn Saud of Arabia (“Servant of the Mighty One”) walks with a slow, deliberate gait. The nine battle wounds of his youth, even the trouble some one in his groin, have not curbed his legendary virility, but they have reduced his ranging stride. Fortnight ago, when he met President Roosevelt on a U.S. cruiser in the Suez Canal (TIME, March 5), the King looked longingly at the President’s well-worn wheelchair.

Hinted the King with Oriental obliqueness: a chair like that would save him many steps in his palace at Riyadh. The President responded with Occidental directness. From belowdecks a spare chair was unearthed, dusted off, ceremoniously presented by the President of the United States to the King of Saudi Arabia.