- Day of Armsgiving
IT will not be possible for some time to find what the Americans have been up to in their despatch of aircraft and anti-tank guns to Jordan; but whatever their game is, it is a dangerous one. Things have got into so sorry a mess in the Middle East, through nobody's fault more than our own, that it would be foolish to criticise without more information about the motives for the move— which, as a short-term expedient, may be justi- fiable. In the long term, however, every interven- tion of this kind adds to the difficulty the West is going to have in keeping its hands clean, so that it can deal with any government that may emerge in any Middle Eastern country—not just with puppet princes who happen to be ruling at the moment.
The arms for Jordan are not required by Hussein to help him in a war against Com- munism: they are needed for use against the elements in his own country who would like to push him off his throne. And if the threat of force is enough, if he does not have to use them, he can always store them for use later—against Israel. The only reason why the Israelis are not unduly worried, presumably, by the flow of mili- tary material to their neighbour is that they have such a poor opinion of his capacity as a warrior. Besides, the stronger Hussein is, the weaker is the Arab League.
There is no need to be greatly worried by the warnings uttered by Mr. Gromyko before he set out for the UN meetings. Russian statements of this kind are comically predictable; in view of the malodorous reminders of Hungary which Mr. Gromyko knew he would have to face, he was naturally concerned to distract attention by lash- ing out at American and British activities in the Middle East and in Cyprus. Unfortunately he happens on this occasion to have quite a good case. The decision to reprieve Sampson is an in- dication that sane counsels are at last beginning to prevail in Cyprus, but the continued failure to find even the basis for a possible settlement there leaves the Government continually open to the charge of hypocrisy. Even if the arguments that the island's continued dependence is strategic- ally necessary for the West, or that no settlement can now be reached without the risk of pre- cipitating a war, have some validity, they happen to be precisely the arguments that the Russians use to justify their conduct in Hungary; and that is embarrassing.
No easy way to a Middle East settlement is likely to present itself in the immediate future; but certain moves can be made to put ourselves into better position to meet any crisis which does arise—and, with the present tension there, Mr. Gromyko is justified in pointing out that quite a small incident might precipitate a war, even if none of the parties desires it. Two guiding principles remain: first, that we should ease our. selves out of any unnecessary commitments, like the Oman treaty, which are leftovers from a time when we could afford to play that sort of game; and second, that we should make sure that what. ever is done to assist any individual Arab State, it is not at the expense of Israel. This may be all that can be done for the moment : but it is better than continuing to delude ourselves (as the Foreign Office, incredibly, is still prone to do) that there if still some strength left in the myth of a noble British destiny in the Middle East.
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