The Bey's Last Day?

By virtue of a series of revolutions and counterrevolutions within the 17th century Ottoman Empire, the descendants of bush-bearded Hussein ben AH, the son of a Greek renegade, claim by birth and title to be the "Possessors of the Kingdom of Tunis." In actual fact, since the French took over their kingdom in 1881. the Husseinite Beys of Tunisia have been possessors of little more than a fancy title and the perquisites that go with it--though the perks can be quite handsome. In 1943-when Mohammed al-Moncef showed troublesome signs of getting out of hand, the French dumped him on the ground of his being pro-German, and installed an obscure and more tractable cousin, Mohammed el Amin.

With a down payment of 100,000 francs to buy himself a new uniform (weighing 60 Ibs. before being loaded with medals) and a promise of $2,500,000 a year in salary and allowances for himself and his family, aged El Amin played his part to perfection. He was regal and dignified at hand-kissing ceremonies, built fancy palaces and went roaring through town in a royal limousine with a screaming siren (reports have it that El Amin Bey had a foot pedal in the back of his car with which he himself could sound the siren). Most important, El Amin kept himself out of political mischief by spending his days tinkering with old clocks and watches and later, when his hobbies turned more modern, with an expensive X-ray machine and a do-it-yourself kit for making blood tests on his relatives.

The big day for El Amin Bey was always May 15, the anniversary of his accession when, amidst the panoply of his royalty, his subjects, his ministers and the full diplomatic corps gathered to do him homage. When last year Tunisia became an independent nation under Premier Habib Bourguiba. the Bey's allowance was cut to a puny $500,000 and the special laws protecting his family were repealed (one cousin was promptly sent to jail for pushing narcotics). Last week a two-line communique from government headquarters announced that May 15 was no longer to be considered a public holiday. Reduced to accepting the hand kisses of his dependent relatives on his feast day, Tunisia's Bey had little to look forward to but extinction. By the time May 15 rolls around again. Tunisia will probably have declared itself a republic.

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