Although Nazis preach Nordic racial superiority, they have little hesitation in stringing along with a Mediterranean people like the Italians or an Oriental one like the Japanese. Moreover, they strenuously try to cultivate friendship with the Arabs, who are not only non-Aryan but Semitic. Last week Adolf Hitler received at his Berchtesgaden retreat a tall, straight, bearded Arab dressed in a beautifully embroidered flowing robe. His name was Khalid al Hud, and his position is that of counselor and emissary of Ibn Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, "Guardian of the Holy Places," the most potent and most independent of the Near East's monarchs.
Nazi rumor had it last week that stubborn Ibn Saud, most listened-to of Arab nationalist leaders, and Great Britain, most respected of Western powers in the Near East, were on the outs. The Nazis, in fact, wanted it believed that His Majesty was so exasperated by British "broken promises" in the-Near East that hereafter Arab nationalists in general and Ibn Saud in particular would come to Rome and Berlin for help and guidance. Although a discreet silence was kept over what, if anything, Führer Hitler promised Khalid al Hud and vice versa, it was news simply that they had talked. When the German Foreign Office mouthpiece, the Deutsche Diplo-matische Politische Korrespondenz, announced on the heels of the meeting that the Axis would support the Arabs in eliminating British and French influence in the Near East, it was doubly news. For Britain it was alarming.
Likelihood was that Khalid al Hud's visit would not result immediately in anything concrete, but was simply another instance of the Axis policy of goading the British and French by flattering the Arab. Although Benito Mussolini allows his Arabs in Libya precious little freedom, he has long been mightily concerned about Arab independence in French-mandated Syria and British-mandated Palestine. Il Duce proclaimed himself "Protector of Islam" two years ago, but last spring he nevertheless invaded Albania, a predominantly Moslem country. In Germany hand-picked Arabs are invited as honor guests to the Nazi Party's annual Congress at Nürnberg, where they usually hear Nazi orators bait the Jews. Both Nazi and Fascist newspapers, moreover, rarely miss a chance to fight the battle of the Arab in Palestine and Syria. Last week they found some choice items to report.
> In Haifa, Palestine, 18 Arabs were killed, 24 wounded, by a time bomb exploding in a vegetable market. British authorities believed Jews, probably of the Revisionist organization, the culprits. Arabs planned a general strike, while members of Haifa's Christian community asked the British High Commissioner to protect the Arab population. Jewish communal leaders hastened to condemn the "dastardly murder of innocent Arabs, women and children." and Chairman David Ben Gurion, of the Palestine Jewish Agency, again warned his people that "we must not sully our struggle with despicable acts of madness."