THE EMIR ABDULLAII
By ROM LANDAU
WITH the exception of the scenery, everything about Amman, the capital of Transjordan, is on a- small scale. For all its picturesque position it is hardly a town, rather a straggling accumulation of habitations with a modern square, two modem shopping streets and black-clad police- men siegiiiiting a traffic which only rarely jUitifies their eager Contortions. In unexpected grandeur the beautiful Roman iniphitheatre dominate§ the town and somewhat taCtleisli reminds" it of a past glory laSt together with its fOrmer'hartie, Philadelphia. The romantic mountains towards Palestine are varied by pasture land and olive trees ; rocky precipices . by downs gay with flowers. The vast plains, green, russet and violet, are conceived by Nature in the grand manner, and are more beautiful than the austere landscape round Jerusalem. But they are almost too over- powering for the small State which they enclose. The country has ,:great, agricultural and economic possibilities, but despite the achievements of an excellent and assiduous British administration, it is still waiting for a more extensive exploration. The complexities of near-Eastern politics have reduced its progress to something quite incommensurate with the potentialities inherent in its natural resources. I went to Amman to see the Emir Abdullah, the ruler of Transjordan, .son of the late King Hussein of the Hedjaz, brother of the late King Feisal and uncle of the present King of Iraq. His palace, situated on a hill outside the town, is Modern and has no distinction. Inside, neither its European furniture nor the profusion of German clocks betray the oriental character- of its ownet. Nnmerous photographs of the late King HuSsein and " King Feisal make the guest conscious of traditions which are-almost too royal for the unassuming shell.
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