The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, March 13, 1953, Image 6
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PAGE SIX
THE NEWBERRY SUN
Traffic In Human Bodies Continues In Arabia;
*
Pretty Women Go To Highest Bidder.
(By JAN LAUSKI)
Look at the yellow patch on the
map called Arabia. Insignificant,
perhaps, with its vast tracks of
arid desert. A land where singing
and dancing are illegal; where
few men from the West have liv
ed to describe its thousand fab
ulous mysteries.
But this is Arabia, the country
where a girl of eleven can be
bought on the market for gold
. . . the enigmatic gateway to the
East ruled over by a despotic king
who won his throne by the sword.
I was his guest for five months.
Back in London today it is hard
for me to realize I went where
Lawrence of Arabia failed to pene
trate. But that is easy to explain;
for King Ibn Saud made me his
friend. A friendship which car
ried authority equalled by no pass
port.
It enabled me to map the slave
routes which all end under the
merciless sun of Arabia, in a world
which has no reality to the out-
aider. Civilization there has for
gotten time. The way of life has)
not changed for a thousand years.
MOVED HAREM BY AIR-LIFT
I went to Arabia as the guest
of King Ibn Saud, who has enforc
ed an iron shut-down on inquiring
strangers and stayed in his capital,
Riyadh.
I was writing a film script on
the king’s life. I had gathered
some material from British in
telligence officers whom I had met
in Cairo; and although what little
they knew was accurate, it was
not even the beginning of the real
story.
I found the king a man of great
charm.
He has 200 American cars—all
the latest design! There is also
the Arabian Air Line. This is run
for the king’s private use.
While I was there he wanted
to move his harem. In all, there
were 100 women to be transported.
Three Dakota aircraft were requir
ed for this “wife lift.” The ma
chines, old-type army transports,
had no seating. And huddled to
gether the royal wives must have
thought it undignified indeed. Up
in the clouds they suddenly felt
cold- Without further ado, in
one of the planes, they lit a fire.
The pilot—^an American—said
afterwards that the operation
turned out to be more dangerous
than running the gauntlet of a
dozen hostile jet fighters-
While I was a guest at the
palace I began to hear strange
tales of the slave traffic. It was
obvious—I didn’t need anyone to
tell me—that all the royal family
and rich merchants had legions of
slaves.
But what fascinated me were
the rumours of European women
who mysteriously found their way
into the harems. How they were
brought into the country intrigued
me.
So when the king told me that
I could travel at will throughout
his kingdom as a guest of his
sons, all of whom had their own
territories, I jumped at the op
portunity.
By camel-train I crossed hun
dreds of miles of barren desert to
visit the townships which had
BUTS CARDINAL CLUB . . . August A. Busch, Jr., head of Anheuser - Busch Brewing Co. of St. Loots,
has purchased the St. Louis Cardinal baseball organization for $3,750,000. Busch, shown with former
owner Fred Salgb (left) and National League president Warren Giles, said he plans no drastic changes.
(
this week's
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never before seen a man from the
outside world. The hospitality was
limitless because I had the royal
blessing.
I travelled with a body-guard of
Bedouin Arabs, blond-haired giants
with startlingly blue eyes.
And while I was staying' with
one merchant in the hinterland I
saw for the first time the sale of
women. I was wearing Arabic
dress—for one cannot go any-
T REMEMBER”
’ BY THE OLD TIMERS
From W. E. la Plante, Lemon
Grove, California: My memory
does not go back as far as that of
H. J. Scott of Manchester, Ohio.
That is. I do not remember the
old time hack. In my boyhood days,
in Fargus Falls, Minnesota. I re
member when the streets were so
full of chuck holes that I could
riot ride my bicycle in the streets.
But I do remember when we put
logs into the fireplace and let the
ends bum off, and pushed the logs
into the fireplace from time to
time. And I remember that when
we got nice new brass beds, we
took the side boards of the old
wooden beds and stuck them into
the fireplace, same as we did the
logs. But we nearly burned the
house down. There were three or
four coats of paint and varnish on
the old sideboards and the heat
of the burning ends softened up all
this paint and varnish and the
flames worked right back into the
room. We had a heck of a time get
ting them out of the fireplace and
carrying them outdoors.
From Mrs. Leslie Graham, Mack
inaw, Illinois: I remember when
every one used large square, ruf
fled pillow “shams” embroidered
with flowers and verse. Mother
had a “sham” embroidered in
lilies. The left one read: “The lilies
close their leaves at night”; the
right one, "And open with the
morning light.” Another old favo
rite read on the left, “I slept and
dreamed that life was beauty”; the
right one. “I woke and found that
life was duty.”
From Mrs. E. Maria McNair,
1403 N. St. Clair Street, Pittsburgh
6, Pa.: I remember, 65 years ago.
my father had a set of zinc shelves
held together by a rope and raised
and lowered from the pump bed
into the well, but not touching the
water. In it we kept our food. One
time the rope broke dropping a
roast, eggs, butter and milk into
the water. He had to clean out the
well to avoid contaminating the
water, a tremendous undertaking
■
where in the country without if for
fear of being murdered either by
bandits or kill-on-sight warriors.
There wdre ten beautiful young
girls. Eight of them Arabic, aged
about 12 or 13. But the other two
were older. And they spoke French.
Standing dumbly before the mer
chant, they allowed him, without
a murmur, to pinch them, turn
them around, and generally assess
their value. He bought them for
about 1,000 Reals ($280).
This merchant already had 40
“slave” wives.
This was the conventional thing
FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1953
7—
fWMd.
INTELOGRAM
Do you know the missing words?
1. Kangaroos are native to
2. Egypt’s ex-King is now in exile,
3. French Guiana is in South
4. Abner Doubleday invented
5. The is 93,000,000 miles from Earth.
6. wrote “A Tale of Two Cities.”
7. Washington was inaugurated in ,
8. The Territory of Louisiana was purchased
from
9. A teen-ager is also called an - w
10. The abbreviation “Etc.” stands for .. ,,
Now from the words below, insert the proper one in each
of the 10 blanks in the Intelligram.
(1) Arabia, Australia. (2) Farouk, Cheops. (3)
America, Africa. (4) Basketball, Baseball. (5) Sun,
Moon. (6) Dickens, Balzac. (7) Washington, New
York. (8) Spain, France. (9) Adolescent, Enfant.
(10) Et cetera. Everything.
Total your points, scoring yourself 10 points for each
correct choice. A score of 0-20 is poor; 30-60, average;
70-80, superior; 90-100, very superior.
^ Scott “BoycC
PH PEEVE
■ I owed this business friend a
steak, so the other evening, with
a little extra cash in the jeans, I
asked him out to dinner. We went
to a restaurant on the edge of
town, ordered up two of the biggest
T-bones in the house and settled
down to nibble on the appetizers.
Then up walks some Joe, slaps
my friend on the back and sits
himself down.
“Glad to see you, old boy,” says
my friend. “It’s been a coon’s
age.” ,
“Ain’t it the truth.” says the
stranger.
From there they launch into a
conversation on the state univer-
; sity’s prospects for the fall foot
ball season. On and on it goes. Dis
creetly I cleared my throat. My
friend ignored me and performed
no introductions.
The steaks arrived. Still they
talked and I fiddled with my fork
and knife while they grew cold. On
and on it went and no attempt on
my friend’s part at making an
introduction.
This has gone on long enough,
says I to myself, and aims my
number 12 right foot for my
friend’s shin. I was determined to
make the punt a good one and
put force behind it.
“Oh-h-h,” screams the stranger.
“My leg’s broken!”
“Sorry, old man,” I murmured.
”1 have an unfortunate reflex.”
“I should punch you in the
nose,” the stranger says. He gets
up and hobbles away, but not be
fore he said to my friend, “Boy,
the company you keep.”
“What’s the idea,” says my
friend. “Trying to kill the guy?”
“What’s the idea, yourself,” says
L “Why didn’t you introduce me
to that goof?”
“Introduce you. Him?” says my
friend. “Why I never saw him
before in my life.”
to do. No one thought it odd.
After I had witnessed the sale 1
began to ask. How did they get in
to the country? Where did they
come from?
Slowly at first—but not through
any sense of embarrassment — I
was told they came from along the
old slave routes which have been
operated for more than a thousand
years.
There are two categories of
slave women in Arabia. First are
the Arab girls who go into the
harems when they are 11 or 12.
Parents often prefer to sell their
daughters as slaves rather than
marry them. Harem prices are
higher than those paid by hus
bands. •
Then there are the imported
girls. These are older. They come
from Casablanca, Algiers, Tunis
and the Balkans.
Recruited by Arab agents they
are told that they Eire to be taken
to the Belgian Congo where the
world’s richest men are congre
gated. Once there the real kidnap
starts.
They are passed then from
agent to agent as the journey pro
gresses. From the Congo they are
herded together in camel caravans
over thousands of miles of desert
to the shores of the Red Sea.
In flat-bottomed Arab Daalah
boats they are ferried across. By
then their numbers are thinned
out. For the trader in human
souls bargains with death in every
ten because of the tortuous trek.
The crossing takes place well
north of Aden, for British gunboats
patrol far up into the Red Sea
searching for contraband cargoes.
Once on the shores of Arabia the
wild bidding begins. I saw auc
tioneering going on within a few
minutes of the boats scraping the
beach.
Why do the Arabs want these
imported women. That is hard to
answer. I suppose it is really be
cause each man considers he has
the exclusive right to at least 60
Decoded Intelligram
• •„ ;; /• X
1—Australia. 2—F a r o u k. 3—^
America. 4—Baseball. 5—Sun. 6—-
Dickens. 7—New York. 8—France-
9—Adolescent. 10—Et cetera.
women. And there just are not
enough to go round.
Also judging by the prices they
pay for foreign “wives,” they con
sider them a speciality.
If an Arab merchant- wants to
give a friend a present he sends
along a beautiful young girl. That
is considered the truest manifesta
tion of friendship.
The girls and women who are
abducted ai'e in a shocking condi
tion when they arrive. Thus they
are never presented for harem
sale before they have been fat
tened and groomed.
It is this process which makes
them realize that the life ahead
o fthem won’t be so bad after all.
After the hardship the African
journey they are thrown into
amazing luxury. Waited on by
Negro slaves they are encouraged
to do nothing but sleep and eat.
It is impossible to judge Saudi
Arabia by our standards. Their
calendar, starting in the days of
Mohammed, is now in the year
1371. And in many other ways
they are equally out of step with
us.
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