Meeting in the Desert

The two richest men in the world met last week and ate camel.

The occasion was the state visit of King Saud of Saudi Arabia to the neighboring sheikdom of Kuwait. A Connecticut-sized chunk of desert bordering on the Persian Gulf, Kuwait is so rich from oil that it literally does not know what to do with all its money. Kuwait's portly ruler, Sheik Abdullah as Salim as Sabah, has an annual income of $200 million but modestly keeps only one wife and a single Cadillac. Saud has a yearly income of $320 million, keeps four wives, some 100 concubines, countless cars.

Preparing for Saud's arrival, Kuwait's lesser sheiks spared no expense. Cabinetmakers and furniture manufacturers were kept busy round the clock for a whole month refurbishing air-conditioned desert palaces. First among the princely spenders was Sheik Abdullah al Mubarak as Sabah, commander in chief of the 3,000-man armed forces, head of the police, Minister of Defense and Broadcasting, and Kuwait's unchallenged strongman. Mubarak already owns a Cadillac with brightware completely goldplated, but to celebrate Saud's coming he ordered another 69 Chevrolets, seven Oldsmobiles and seven more Cadillacs. Triumphal arches of solid walnut, festoons of colored lights, flags and bunting were imported to decorate the route from Kuwait airport to the ruler's Dasman Palace. Cost: $1,000,000.

Camel Containing Lamb. Saud landed in his specially appointed DC-6, soon followed by two other planes bearing a retinue of 58 courtiers and five court jesters. Ostensibly, King Saud was merely returning the Kuwait ruler's visit to Saudi Arabia last October. But word in the souks was that the Saudi monarch had ac tually come to get acquainted with Sheik Abdullah al Mubarak, who, although 25 years the junior of Kuwait's ruler, is nonetheless his uncle and is slated to succeed him.

Sheik Mubarak gave Saud plentiful opportunity to get acquainted. He held three separate lunches for the-Saudi ruler at three separate personal palaces. Fifteen hundred attended one banquet where, among other dishes, 25 young camels and 185 lambs were consumed. Specialty of the day: an entire young camel, roasted, containing an entire lamb, roasted, containing an entire roasted chicken, containing an entire roasted pigeon, contain ing a boiled egg. The repast was enlivened by Saud's five court jesters, who cracked off-color jokes and engaged in pratfall buffoonery.

Free Water. Making all the opulence possible is the $500 million that Kuwait gets for its oil exports yearly. In its 6,000 square miles, Kuwait contains one-quarter of all the world's proven oil reserves--half again as much as the U.S.'s. Kuwait currency is 100% gold-backed, and the ruler keeps a reserve of $2 billion in British banks. There is nothing else to do with the money as Kuwait's development has already surged far ahead of its capacity to make use of it. New office buildings stand empty, new roads trail off in the desert with no place to go. The sheik has built innumerable schools and hospitals. Schooling, medical care, hospitalization are free for Kuwait's population of 250,000. There is no income tax, and Britain, under a treaty dating back to 1899, guarantees the country's territorial integrity (37.5% of Britain's oil comes from Kuwait).

Unhappy Rich. For all that, not everybody is happy. Rich young Kuwaitis with fresh Egyptian college diplomas (scholarships are government provided) are restive and so is the growing commercial community, which includes a large number of Palestinian Arabs. They resent the sheiks' autocratic rule (nobody has a vote in Kuwait, and sheiks head all the government offices) and listen avidly to the inflammatory broadcasts from Cairo. They bewail the fact that membership in Nasser's "One Arab Nation" is still denied them. Declared one of the disgruntled: "How can we be happy when so many other Arabs are miserable?''

If Saud felt embarrassed in the midst of such social consciousness, he gave no sign. At week's end he returned to his kingdom, where Saudi Arabia's middle class is not big enough to be heard inside the palace's air-conditioned rooms.

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