Middle-East Background
The Arabs and the West. By Clare Hollingworth. (Methuen. 21s.) MISS HOLLINGWORTH spent most of the years 1940-1950 as a news- paper-correspondent in the Middle East, and has travelled widely in the area. Her book is designed, she says, to supply the basic facts and the general background which the ordinary reader would need in any attempt to appreciate the complexities of the Middle East as generally understood, omitting Persia and Turkey, but including Libya and the Arabian peninsula. Rather more than a third of the book is given up to developments between the end of the Second World War and the outbreak of hostilities in Palestine. This is followed by a brief but vividly written account of the Palestine problem and the events leading up to the war of 1948, of which Miss Hollingworth evidently had close personal experience. A final 'section deals with the aftermath of that war and certain special problems of the area such as the Communist danger and the indus- trialisation of Egypt. It includes, however, an interesting appreciation of the military strength of the various Arab countries. An epilogue continues the story up to August last.
Miss Hollingworth makes two points with great force. She asserts that the importance of the Palestine war has been much under- estimated outside the Arab world, and that " Israel remains the greatest obstacle to Arab co-operation with the West." She is firmly of the opinion that social and economic inequalities through- out the area are such•that there is a serious danger that these States may " follow China and the other underprivileged countries into the Russian camp " ; and she quotes with apparent approval some words written of Egypt early in 1950: " What is perhaps most disturbing of all is the reversion to Oriental methods of a country which has had such close ties for so long with the West."
Miss Hollingworth's book is generally well informed, and much of what she says will be accepted by those who have any knowledge of the area. But the book assumes too much knowledge for the beginner, who for instance will certainly want to know more about the Middle East Supply Centre, will need to be told the difference between a Shiah and a Sunni, and may well be confused by Miss Hollingworth's chronology of the events immediately preceding the Palestine war. On the other hand the specialist will find much of it superficial ; some of her judgements are sweeping, and the book shows signs of having been hastily written.
BICKHAM SWEET-ESCOTT.
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