11 APRIL 1987, Page 19

Guest at rest

A DISTINCTIVE City occasion was the banquet in Guildhall for King Fahd. He addressed the City worthies in Arabic, much as the Emir Faisal addressed the peacemaking worthies at Versailles. T. E. Lawrence at the Emir's right hand would rattle off diplomatic demands, purporting to translate for his master, who was in fact reciting from the Koran. The same process in reverse might have stimulated the King as he sat through the Lord Mayor's speech of eulogy. As it was, he was seen to fall into contemplative repose which, in a commoner, would have been taken for sleep.