LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Arabs and the West
SIR,-1 smiled when a few days ago The Times magisterially (more suo) rebuked the Arabs for not doing what The Times thinks they ought to do, but'your leading article, Ineffective Arabs, beats belief. Like everyone else who longs for a little good-will and understanding in the world, I am grieved that the Arab States should be distracted and torn by trivial rivalries and mean intrigues. There are several epithets which might spring to the mind, but to select " ineffective "—surely, Sir, this is just a little unexpected. Would it not have been more tactful, perhaps more effective, to indicate to them how, by merely observing our example, they might rise above themselves ? You could have pointed out with what resolution and political skill we have moved out of our doldrums and thrown over our prejudices, reasonable as well as unreasonable, to forge a United Western Europe in the face of mortal danger. You might have drawn the lesson from the readiness for self-sacrifice and the wise acceptance of rational arguments with which we have composed our economic rivalries—although, it is true, the Arab States have not yet enjoyed the benefits of Marshall Aid to stimulate them. You might have illustrated the meaning of political tact by our refusal to bolster up a rickety structure in the Saar when it might have endangered the great objective of bringing Western Germany wholeheartedly into our com- munity. After the disinterested manner in which we carried out our self-appointed task to preserve and restore the Arab patrimony, the Arab leaders could not fail to be impressed by such fresh evidences of our genius for facing the issues which appear to be most obviously in need of urgent attention, and would surely regard our political inter- ference as nothing in comparison with the great advantages they would gain from putting themselves once again under our wing.—Yours
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