JORDAN
have just seen Miss Belfrage's article 'Assassination in Context' in your issue of September 9. Perhaps it is not too late to comment.
I agree with Miss Belfrage that the opposition to the Hashemite regime in Jordan is strong; that the long-term viability of the State is suspect; that the wisdom of giving it our support is challenge- able; and that the United Arab Republic is a strong attraction for a majority of the Jordanian people. I also share Miss Belfrage's dislike of Munib Maadi, the ex-Director-General of Infor- mation. Who does not? I am only sorry that, s‘ith so large an area of agreement, Miss Belfrage should have spoilt a good case by overstatement and by a rich crop of factual error. 'The government has the power of arbitrary arrest....' True. So have the governments of the BAR, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and dozens of Iminor 'sheikhdoms and amiratcs. It is profitless to judge the Jordanian Government by Western stan- ?ards, and it is surprising that a lady so obviously Intelligent as Miss Belfrage should have done so. 116IentallY. the 'joke recently circulating' about z treading on X's foot is an old chestnut concocted In Cairo two or three years ago. The original story set the scene, not in an Amman bus, but in a Cairo train. Amman, It is clearly more 'applicable to Cairo than ''nnlan, because the Jordanian Government is an army-backed civilian government, whereas 'the ..nvernment of the UAR is an army-backed adminis- tration of army officers.
Belfrage's description of Amman suggests facthas never been there (I know that in jf She has). The amphitheatre is not in the centre cr the town, but on .its northern outskirts. Its th41111131ing, after continuing off and on for over a thousand years, was halted before Miss Belfrage bas born. Far from comparing Amman to Rome 'aneause of its seven hills, the well-to-do speak of 0, overgrown village' and hanker after the fleshpots e! Beirut and Cairo; very few of the poor can ,ter have heard of Rome. mud n street of hintitnan is not constructed of mud, tin, dung and l) of string—nor does it even appear to be so. e.,^e almost all the streets of Amman, it has an Acellent tarmac surface which is clean by London standards. hzvHuMan resources are most of what Jordan does is.teis• in fact, the only repository of natural wealth Dead Sea.' Miss Belfrage evidently has not st.i",ru of the phosphate industry of Rusaifa, of he whandier deposits awaiting exploitation in the adi el Hassa, of the east Ghor project which will vairte 30,000 acres of new land in the Jordan 130,2; of the marble industry or even of the as -74 tourist trade. She quotes the opposition claiming that 'most of the national budget is tina -rea out among corrupt leaders.' She would have a more telling point if, instead of quoting thitt e-tattic, she had told the simple truth, namely, arat two-thirds of the national budget goes to the ertned forces, None of this makes Jordan viable uneorrupt. But it is folly to ignore facts. W"Iss Belfrage speaks of 'an opposition that even Nensteirn estimates place at 80 per cent. of the nerhrtit,„ati°n• The remaining 20 per cent. are illiterate araus. 1n the absence of scientific surveys, which 10,a inVossible in an authoritarian state like often such estimates are crude guesses. 1 have wren heard 'ffie proportions exactly reversed—quite ser°,inglY, in my view. What is a self-evident ab- ti triads is the statement that 20 per cent, illiterate of "adi_s could suppress the remaining 80 per cent., eau syrni a considerable proportion are highly MayBelfrage? I end with a few words of advice to Miss ec :age? If she loses her appetite at the thought land- dirtY sPoon, she should stay away from Arab Axe st, or eat only in the houses of the rich, or Amman, fingers-. If she objects to the 'stench' of is „ she should reflect that the air of. Amman ih,'"nrer than that of ally other Arab 'capital with re'. Possible exception of DaMasctis (the Hashemite tu8IL111,e can claim no credit for this: it is the alti- s front' she objects to noise, she should stay away just ' uamascus as well as from Amman; MiGs are i ob: 'ts noisy as Hawker Hunters. And if she !`hub to exclusive clubs, like the Officers' Sporting
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