Princely Revolt

"King Saud is not a 20th century king.

He is not a 20th century king. He is a Neanderthal king." Though many would agree with this description of Saudi Arabia's crusty old monarch, there was some surprise at the source: Prince Talal Ibn Abdulaziz, half brother of Saud, former Minister of Finance in Saud's government.

Last week Talal, 32, and half a dozen other princely Saudi rebels, showed up in Beirut to declare open war on King Saud, and on the feudal system by which Saudi Arabia is ruled. For years, said Talal at a press conference in the Hotel St. Georges, he had pressed for political and social changes. "The people are dissatisfied.

They want freedom and reform, and they will get it with or against the royal family. Either we lead the reform or we all will be overwhelmed by it." But, Talal went on, "King Saud is absolutely hopeless. It is impossible to achieve anything under his rule. He not only doesn't want constitutional monarchy; he doesn't understand what it is." Talal claims that during his last hitch in the government (1960-61) Saud promised him he could proclaim a constitutional monarchy. Proclaim he did--but Saud prohibited mention of it in Saudi Arabia's press. Talal's attempts to divert Saudi Arabia's steady stream of oil money from the free-spending royal family to development projects were equally frustrating.

"I literally don't know how many princes are tapping the budget," admitted the former Finance Minister disgustedly, "but there are hundreds, maybe more than a thousand." In Riyadh, King Saud confiscated Talal's property, canceled his passport, and denounced the rebels as "quite mad, irresponsible boys who are deliberately trying to break the Saudi family tradition and hold it up to ridicule." Mad indeed, Rebel Talal headed for Cairo to drum up more support behind his solemn vow: "We will overthrow King Saud very soon--sooner than you think." Talal would find quick sympathy in Egypt's capital, where Gamal Abdel Nasser for years has been using spies, subversion and radio propaganda in an effort to undermine the old King.

But it would not be easy to dislodge the man who held the purse strings of rich Saudi Arabia. -':

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