ANARCHY IN JORDAN
THE announcement that British troops-in the Middle East are to be reinforced to the extent of two paratroop bat- talions is in itself a confession of the failure of Sir Anthony Eden's policy in that area. The ill-fated attempt to get Jordan into the Baghdad pact is now reaping the harvest that might have been expected from a soil well sown with dragons' teeth, and the riots which have been taking place in Amman and Jerusalem this week bear eloquent testimony to the dangers of trying to conduct a `bold' policy amidst the unstable elements that make up the Levant today. The Jordan goVernment has declared that it will not join any regional pact, but the real question, now that the damage has been done, is whether it will be capable of maintaining order under the pressure of the centrifugal forces that are tearing Jordan apart, as described on a later page. Neither Britain nor Israel could afford to allow Jordan to lapse into anarchy, yet any intervention would pro- duce repercussions among the other Arab States and in the world in general, the end of which could hardly be foreseen. This is the risky impasse to which recent British policy has led. In the Levant, as in so many other danger spots, wisdom con- sists in letting sleeping worms lie.
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