Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-12-16
Middle East Leaders
Are Forced TO Yield
To Public Opinion
Shrewd to Recognize
Spirit of Compromise
Is Not Popular Mood
By Dorothy Thompson

BY Dorothy thompson
CAIRO. Egypt.-That Middle
Eastern governments and parlia-
ments are, in most countries, COM
posed of the landlord class is
correct and, at the present stage
of social development, inevitable.
But the notion that these govern
ments can do as they please or
alone make public opinion is in
correct. Instead they gauge pub
lie opinion, and. like our own
politicians, outbid each other in
appealing to it.
If, as Vice President Barley is
wont to reiterate with little
political tact-the Middle East
were really "a sea of despotism. "
Anglo American policy might find
it easier to make deals with gov
ernments over such outstanding
issues as relations with Israel,
the status of the Sudan, and the
defense of Suez.
Leaders of these governments,
with few exceptions. as have
met them, tend to be shrewd and
practical when they are not speak
ing for public consumption. Off the
record they show disposition to
reach compromises out of en-
lightened self-interest. But on the
record, they speak in recognition
of the fact that the spirit OF COM
promise is not the popular mood,
which is anti-imperialist and
suspicious to the point of feel
ing that any proposals for CO.
operation probably are a sinister
western plot to control the Arab
world or that Israel, as Bridge
head of Democracy" actually is
a bridgehead of American minor
ity interests; and that no Middle
Eastern government can expect
the West, or that part of the
United Nations led by America, to
keep a contract. Political leaders
respond to the mood and, by
responding, accelerate it.
Industrialism In Infancy.
The Middle East is not CAPT.
talist or bourgeois society. Indus
trialism is in it's infancy. The
basis of wealth and labor is land.
In some countries-Egypt espe-
cially-the demand exceeds the
supply, and land values are ex-
tremely high. Irrigated land,
though inadequate in acreage. isl
immensely productive, yielding
four or even five crops per year.
The moment a man obtains
means he invests in land which
he then rents to village cultl-
vators for a share of the crop.
He is usually an absentee owner
who views his holdings as west
erners view bonds-safe invest
ments from which to draw profits
without expenditure of energy or
interest, in either land or tenants.
There is, in short. no competition
for wealth or labor.
Until the present generation
this upper class also had prac-
tica1 monopoly of education, for
they alone could afford it.
Again, if this class could wholly
have it's way, its short-range in
terest, at least, would be to main
tain the status quo, for political
monopoly can only rest on litter
ate masses. But, again. political
leaders must yield to public opin-
ion, and the Arab world is clamor-
ing for education.
Schools Springing Up.
So primary education is now
compulsory in the three Arab
states I have visited; secondary
education is free; university edu-
cation is cheap. Schools are
springing up like mushrooms;
scholarships are plentiful, partly
to meet the enormously increased
demand for teachers. In Egypt,
with a population of 20 million.
seven-tenths of whom live off land,
There are 10 or 80 thousand uni
versity students; and thus a new
class of leaders is being created
who are already beginning to
challenge the former economic
and political monopoly.
It is among these students and
graduates from Is to 40 that ma
tionalistic patriotism combines
with the demand for social change.
And this is the class which Anglo
American policy must consider and
conciliate. For whether this new
class will look toward western
liberal democracy as the pattern
for the future: or, through dis
appointment in western under
standing and sympathy, serve the
ends of those reactionaries who
distrust western foreign policy;
or turn eventually toward Russia
and Communist Greenland the
Middle East is acknowledgements
largely on intelligent American
understanding and action in the
Middle East. At present we are
merely marking time, as we
marked it in China.
So, although the news from
Korea holds the center of the
stage, it is possibly not the last
bad news we shall read. unless
we start to have a real and 1ea-
sonable policy in the Middle East.
(Released by The Bell Syndicate Incl