Chess Player & Friend

TRANSJORDAN

Shrewd little King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan likes to shoot and hunt, compose delicate Arabic poetry, recite from the Koran, and play chess. He also aspires to enlarge his kingdom. Last week, fingering a set of exquisitely carved chess pieces in his winter palace at Shouneh, a few miles east of the River Jordan, he told a TIME correspondent: "Politics is like chess: you cannot rush your pawns across enemy territory, but must seek favorable openings."

Might & Rights. But those who have played chess with him know that Abdullah, who plays well, likes swift moves, gets bored if the game lasts too long. What moves, wondered rival Arab leaders, was the wily brain planning to make in neighboring Palestine? Traditionally the bad boy of Arab politicians, Abdullah has never made any secret of his ambition to expand his holdings, at the expense of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, or of all four of those states.

In the Middle East chess game, he has a powerful piece--a well-trained, wellarmed, British-led army, the 10,000-strong Arab Legion, most efficient Arab fighting force in the Middle East. In a bold move he might use the Legion (already two-thirds of it is in Palestine to help the British keep order) to seize chunks, or all, of Palestine for himself.

"I must hold strategic positions in Palestine," said Abdullah last week. "These are indispensable to Trans-Jordan, both from military and economic points of view. I cannot give up Mediterranean ports in Palestine. I have rights and claims in Palestine without which Trans-Jordan cannot live."

But in London, where Abdullah's Prime Minister and other emissaries last week were talking over a revised treaty of alliance with Britain, Abdullah's British subsidizers thought Abdullah would be more cautious. Said one, when asked whether Abdullah might try to seize Palestine over the protests of other Arab leaders: "We honestly don't believe he will be so silly."

The British, who put him on his throne, have a firm rein on the impetuous Abdullah. His proud army depends on a yearly British subsidy of $8,000,000, British arms and supplies, and 48 British officers who advise and command it. If British support were withdrawn, Abdullah knows that his Legion would quickly deteriorate into just another ragged Arab band.

Lice & Rice. Abdullah's military adviser, the man on whom the British most count to keep their useful Arab ally efficient but tractable, was also in London last week--Major General* John Bagot Glubb ("Glubb Pasha"), M.C., D.S.O., Order of El-Istiqlal (Independence), Order of El-Nahdhah (Renaissance).

To British tabloid readers, Glubb is already a legendary creature like T. E. Lawrence ("of Arabia"). They imagine him to be tall and slim, with steely blue eyes and commanding voice. Actually his voice is soft, his eyes watery. A World War I wound clipped off a chunk of his jaw, bent his features into a permanent smile. Among the Arabs he is known as Abu Huneik (Father of the Little Chin).

Last week in London, Glubb Pasha was asked how tall he is. He turned to a staff officer for his opinion. "I'm six feet," was the officer's candid, if tactless reply; "and I would judge, sir, that you are about five-foot-six."

"Have a heart, man!" protested Glubb. "Five-foot-six is only a little man like that," he said, reaching toward the floor. "I would say I'm about five-foot-nine."

"Yes, sir," said his inferior, acquiescent but unconvinced.

Glubb's stature among desert Arabs does not depend on his height. He won it by learning to speak Arabic fluently, by scrupulously observing their customs and courtesies, by being firm but smiling and unassuming. At meals he squats on his haunches with them, dipping greasy fingers into the communal dish, kusi, a mound of rice and sour milk topped with a roast sheep stuffed with rice and dates.

Lest they feel that he is different, he scratches and squashes imaginary lice while he talks with lice-ridden Bedouins.* Contrary to pukka British practice, he lets Arab enlisted men eat from the same dishes as their officers. In 27 years among the Arabs (ten of them in Iraq), he has become known as the Arabs' great friend.

Tears & Fears. Among the tales (most-apocryphal) which encrust his legendary name is one of a trip through the desert with several cars full of Legionnaires. One car turned over, killing two of the men. Soon afterward the party stopped for lunch at a Bedouin encampment. To show proper sorrow, Glubb sat for an hour before a steaming platter of rice and meat without tasting a mouthful, drying great tears on the edge of his khafiyah (shawl headdress). Then he solemnly kissed his hosts on both cheeks and drove away. Out of sight of the Bedouin camp, he opened a tin of bully beef and wolfed it down.

Asked what he would do if the War Office sent orders contrary to Abdullah's, the man who serves two kings replied: "I am a British subject. I would have no alternative but to resign my command." Last week the British hoped that Glubb would not be forced on to the horns of that dilemma. If the little chess player's ambitions run away with him, say the British, they will immediately withdraw their subsidy, officers, Glubb and all, and cut off supplies.

By week's end, Abdullah's emissaries and the British had concluded a treaty draft which, the British hoped, would keep Abdullah happy. Its terms promised to continue his military subsidy, cut down (on paper) British rights to use Trans-Jordan as a military base. But the British, fearing a repetition of the painful episode when Iraqi mobs had forced the Iraq government to reject a similar treaty after it had been signed and announced in London, were taking no chances this time. Abdullah's delegation took back only "fairly definite proposals," not a signed treaty. Said one British official: "We don't make the same mistake twice."

* The general's rank and the title Pasha (equivalent of "lord") were bestowed by Abdullah. His rank in the British army when he became commander of the Arab Legion (1939): acting major. His permanent British rank: captain in the officers' reserve. His temporary "local" British rank in Trans-Jordan: acting brigadier.

* An old Arab prover says that a deserted head shows an ungenerous mind.

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