JORDAN: The Unhappy King

Tewfik Pasha Abul Huda hurriedly summoned a special meeting of Jordan’s Parliament in Amman last week and swore all the members to secrecy. Then, as his eyes moistened behind his large, horn-rimmed glasses, the Prime Minister of Jordan told the assembled deputies and senators a sad story.

Their King, 43-year-old Talal, who left a Swiss mental sanitarium ten months ago to succeed his murdered father, Abdullah (TIME, July 7), had suffered a relapse: his clouded mind had grown worse. He begins the day normally enough, but as the hours pass, he becomes depressed and morbidly suspicious. His mind conjures up fancied plots; the Prime Minister told his solemn audience that the King fires trusted officials for conspiring against him. He beats his servants and even his wife, Queen Zaine, whom he loves. Once when the Queen’s brother intervened, King Talal ran him out of the palace. At times, Talal would sneak away and mount a mangy horse and ride unprotected through Amman. Brought back, he would say that he was happy among his people, who were his only friends.

Abul Huda Pasha paused, went on. King Talal had finally yielded to Abul Huda’s pleading and agreed to go back to Switzerland for more treatment, with his family and a small entourage. Instead, he went to Paris, where he saw the sights and refused medical treatment. He threatened the royal physician with a stick. He even turned on his son, Crown Prince Hussein, and chased him out of the room. He beat Queen Zaine, who fled to Switzerland. He struck the wife of Jordan’s Minister to France. He was drinking and throwing away money on women.

By the time Abul Huda finished reading from his notes after an hour and a half, many deputies were weeping silently.

Three Gifts. Abul Huda Pasha had left out, because the deputies well knew, the pressures that aggravated Talal’s illness and would tend to frustrate any King of Jordan. The young kingdom set up by the British in 1920 contains 37,000 desert miles, only a fifth of which is habitable. Jordan depends almost entirely on a British subsidy of £7,500,000 annually to run its government, and its British-trained Arab Legion of 10,000 men.

Talal, who wanted to rule like a real King, never had a chance: he lacked his father’s guile and dynamism. When he ordered the Arab Legion to retaliate against punitive Israeli attacks, he found that he could not even command his army. John Glubb Pasha, the British commander, countermanded his order. Talal’s brother, Prince Naif, is living in neighboring Beirut, and plotting with dissident Jordanians to take the throne. Iraq, ruled by the Hashemite family to which Talal belongs, also has designs on his kingdom.

Shortly before leaving for Paris, Talal entertained the Pakistan minister and handed him three gifts. The first was a diamond pin which the King said had belonged to his grandfather, Hussein of Mecca. Said Talal: “He served the British, and he died alone.” Talal then gave the minister a gold-lettered Koran which had belonged to his father, Abdullah: “He served the British well, and he was murdered in a mosque,” he said. Then Talal handed the minister his own jeweled dagger, and said: “I serve the British. I wonder what my end will be.”

Three Rulers. Last week, the answer to Talal’s question was still unclear. Abul Huda set up a three-man regency council to govern Jordan. The regency, Abul Huda said, would rule until Talal could return to his throne or until young Crown Prince Hussein becomes 18 next May. Hussein is now in school at Harrow (Churchill’s alma mater) along with his cousin, King Feisal of Iraq.

When Talal got word last week of Abul Huda’s regency, he wired back from Paris: “I am on my way to you and still consider myself on leave. Long live Jordan Kingdom.” But instead of flying to Amman, Talal went off to Switzerland, looking for his wife. He could not find her: she had checked out of her hotel and gone into hiding with Crown Prince Hussein, under heavy police protection. The unhappy King told reporters he didn’t know what to do next.