“In a few years time,” King Farouk once
remarked, “there will be only five kings in the world—the King of
England and the four kings in a pack of cards.”In Cairo last week an ambitious Egyptian general seized the royal palace
and gave His Majesty King Farouk exactly six hours to abdicate his
throne and clear out of Egypt for good. A thousand miles away, in
poverty-stricken Iran, Communists and Nationalist mobs forced the Shah
of Shahs to cringe in his lovely palace and give over to Mohammed
Mossadegh absolute power over the Iranian army. “Mossy,” as he is known
in the English-speaking press, got his old job back as Premier .In the oil-rich deserts and teeming cities where Africa, Asia and Europe
converge, revolution, nourished by nationalism and by the slow wrath of
miserable peasants, threatened to whisk away all forms and institutions
that lack roots in the Middle East's history. Most in danger were the
quasi-constitutional monarchies cultivated in the Middle East by
British imperialism. They have all the trappings of democracy but
little of its spirit. Middle Eastern parliaments represent the ruling
classes, but not the ruled; “public opinion” is manipulated, law courts
too often protect the rich against the wretched; taxation is designed
to promote the greatest happiness of the smallest number; the streets
can riot but not rule.While Britain was strong, the monarchies were safe. Now that European
nations no longer pay the piper in the Middle East, the monarchs have
been able to survive only on two conditions: 1> that their personally
loyal armies keep order and discipline in lands where disorder is
routine; 2> that the rulers show themselves willing and able to exact
concessions from the colonial powers.Farouk and the Shah, both 32-year-olds, had failed on both counts. Both
intervened to save their countries from nationalist fanatics, whose
extremism threatened civil war. But Farouk's interventions, though
courageous, were fitful; the Shah's too timid. Farouk, famed for
yachts, gambling and women, lost his popular support to the corrupt
Wafd Party; he antagonized his army by failing to clean out the
extortionists in his own palace.Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, Farouk's ex-brother-in-law,* is a nice
liberal young man, who likes to call himself a “working monarch.” He
owes his throne to his father. Reza Shah Pahlevi, a mighty man who rose
from sergeant to emperor. The young Shah's
sensitivity over his family's short claim to royal legitimacy helps
render him indecisive.Now that Mossadegh, the lachrymose Lion of Abadan, controls the Iranian
army, as well as the Teheran mobs, the Shah is virtually a prisoner,
whom Mossadegh could easily, but probably will not, overthrow.
