The Way to the Throne

The molten noonday sun glared on the restless crowd of 100,000 people jammed before the cream-colored stucco palace. Wailing women ripped off their veils and clawed at their tattooed faces in an ecstasy of grief. Men in flowing djellabahs rushed about emptying buckets of water on the hundreds who fainted. Attendants lifted hysterical, writhing women onto stretchers. Broadcasts summoned all of Rabat's doctors and nurses to emergency work in the city's packed dispensaries.

28 Concubines. The palace gates opened. Shrieks rose to the sky as the coffin of King Mohammed V emerged, draped in a venerable black, green and gold cloth that, by tradition, had hung at the tomb of the Prophet in Mecca. Rhyth mically the crowd cried "Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!" (God is most great). Thus last week King Mohammed V. the found er of independent Morocco, was laid to rest in the royal mausoleum. Mohammed, though recently prone to hypochondria, was in good health and enjoyed life with his two wives and an estimated 28 concubines. Yet last week, swiftly and unexpectedly, he died of heart failure at the age of 51, after minor surgery to clear a passage in his nose.

Mohammed's eldest son was invested as the new king, Hassan II, three days later. Wearing a red fez and a white djellaball in place of his customary sharp, Western-style clothes, he pledged himself to carry on his father's policies in reigning over the nearly 12 million people of his California-sized kingdom.

Ten-Gallon Hat. Only a few months ago, Hassan complained impatiently to a friend: "Here I am, 31, and I haven't ruled yet." Last week the unanswered question was how Hassan would rule. His father was a benevolent autocrat who had authorized a "consultative" assembly in 1956 but had never permitted national elections. He chose his own Premiers, who were responsible only to him. But he was hailed as the man who'se stubborn resistance wrested Moroccan independence from the French, widely admired as a de voted family man, revered by the devout as the spiritual head of the Malikite Sunni Moslems.

Son Hassan does not inherit the instinctive respect his father commanded. The slim, doe-eyed young king has a well-developed taste for fast cars, fleet horses and rapid starlets. Hassan was often in the company of pretty. 28-year-old French Actress Etchika Choureau, who, for three years, lived across the street from him in fashionable Souissi, a suburb of Rabat. But Etchika has returned to Paris. One of his close friends last year was U.S. Navy Lieut. Commander Leon Blair, a brash, talkative Texan and former public relations officer at the U.S. naval base at Kenitra. Blair shipped in pecan trees from Texas for Hassan's garden, prairie dogs for the royal zoo, ten-gallon hats for Hassan's princely head. When left-wing Premier Abdallah Ibrahim protested Blair's moving into the palace as a "liaison officer.'' it cost the Premier his job. King Mohammed mournfully took over as Premier, named young Hassan as his deputy, and entrusted him with vast authority.

Hassan had already shown considerable skill at political infighting. Power lies with the army, and Hassan not only became Chief of Staff but doubled the army's size; its 30,000 men became known as "Hassan's boys." Next he took over the modernized, radio-equipped forces of the Surete Nationale, and then wangled control of the 21,000-man rural police from the Interior Minister. When dissident tribesmen revolted in the Rif mountains. Hassan crushed them.

May Day Parade. The big cities quickly went into opposition. Socialists, trade unions and students railed against unemployment, grinding poverty, and the government's inability to provide decent housing in place of the fetid bidonvilles (shanty towns) surrounding Rabat, Casablanca and Port Lyautey. Hassan was accused of using the army for strike breaking, of being pro-French and pro-U.S.

Municipal elections in May showed the surprising strength of the Socialists and labor unions. Hassan promptly shifted tactics. Leading the Moroccan delegation to last autumn's meeting of the United Nations, Hassan lined up solidly with the Communists on a series of key votes-- Red China, the Congo, Cuba. He had a private huddle with Nikita Khrushchev, who amiably promised Hassan anything he wanted. The first down payment: twelve MIG-17 jet fighters and two MIG-15 trainers now based on a Moroccan airstrip just 15 miles from Nouasseur, the biggest U.S. overseas air base (scheduled to be given up in 1963). At last count, some 39 Soviet technicians were tending to the MIGs.

Under F.L.N. pressure, Hassan was persuaded to allow the Communists to ship arms for the Algerian rebels through Morocco. Last month, coinciding with the arrival of the MIGs, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev flew into Rabat after dodging warning shots from French jet fighters. Brezhnev got not only a lavish welcome but also Hassan's promise to attend this year's May Day parade in Moscow.

No Vassal. Yet, just the week before his father's death, Hassan hotly denied that there was any "new or recent orientation'' of Morocco's policy. "Our country,'' he explained, "is consolidating its independence and enlarging the domain of its interests. It is in this context that one must consider the development of Moroccan-Soviet cooperation. If certain recent manifestations give witness to its importance, this results from the great role played by the Soviet Union in the international field, and not from any vassalage on our part whatever." Western diplomats in Rabat see Hassan as following a calculated policy that is aimed first at appeasing left-wing opposition at home, second at improving Morocco's position in Africa. As a conservative monarchy on a continent where the trend is toward strongman republics, Morocco must not seem behindhand in the emotion-packed "African" issues of colonialism, imperialism and prickly neutralism.

Hassan may be sufficiently agile not to be caught immediately by the Communist embrace. Significantly, Morocco has so far refused Soviet offers of economic aid. The old King himself opposed large-scale Soviet help, warning against engrenage, i.e., "getting caught in the gears." At the King's funeral, Hassan pointedly sought out the French ambassador and U.S. Presidential Emissary Averell Harriman to thank both for the condolences of their governments.

Accept or Fight. The major troubles that lie ahead for Hassan will almost certainly be domestic. His accession to the throne is not directly challenged. "It was either accept it or civil war," admitted a left-wing politician last week. But the army is torn by dissension between conservative-minded top commanders and restless, impatient junior officers. Even more difficult to handle is the powerful left-wing demand for a constitution, drawn up by nationally elected delegates, which would make the government responsible to Parliament and limit the King's powers.

At week's end. Rabat was still in mourning and quiet. Palace callers included not only tribal chieftains in robes, whose traditional loyalty to the late King Mohammed will probably be freely granted to his son. but also opposition leaders in business suits, whose support is much more conditional. "The truce might last a week, perhaps a month." said one. "Everything is in his hands. It is up to him to make the gesture that absolute power is too much for one man. It all depends on how much political wisdom he shows. No excuses are possible. We will not permit one blunder."

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