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Friend with Light Bulbs. One incident, friends agree, shook the young King badly and may have helped change his course from unquestioning friendship for the West. In February 1942, when Rommel was within a few hours' tank ride of Alexandria, an Egyptian cabinet crisis developed, and it appeared that the King might name a pro-Axis Prime Minister. The British asked the King to name Nahas Pasha, who was friendly to the allies. Farouk, then at outs with Nahas, refused. Obviously, the British had to do something, but some Britons in Cairo now be lieve that the manner in which they did it was a mistake. On the crucial day, two British tanks rumbled through the gates of Abdin Palace in Cairo. Troops took stations round the building, and British Ambassador Sir Miles Lampson, flanked by high-ranking British officers, marched into Farouk's study.
"There I was," said Farouk afterward, "lined up behind the desk with my staff on one side. They came in, and Lampson lined up his staff on the other side, and he started talking. I looked around, and then I signed Nahas' appointment as Premier." As the British Ambassador prepared to leave, Farouk said coldly: "Sir Miles, you will regret this day."
When his tutor died of a heart attack in 1946, the lonely King sought other companions. His choices were strange. One was a short, baldheaded Lebanese journalist named Kareem Tabet, who is now the King's press counselor and confidant, has been described as Egypt's Harry Vaughan. Another of the King's favorites is a little Italian named Pulley Bey, a former palace barber and electrician whom (so the story goes) Farouk used to follow around when he was a child, watching with fascination as he screwed in light bulbs. Now he is a combination court jester and general handy man, recruits poker partners and, occasionally, pretty dancing partners; Tabet, Pulley and a half dozen similar hangers-on are generally believed to be neck-deep in graft, were implicated in the scandal of the sale of faulty arms to the Egyptian army, uncovered after the Arab-Israeli war.
"I Am a Wet Blanket." Farouk is a lonely man who would like to be gregarious but does not have the knack for it. He used to go to small cocktail parties given by an old American friend, but found that the other guests would freeze up in his presence and stand around silently. Finally he said to his host: "I'm not coming any more because I am a wet blanket."
There is no doubt that Farouk is intelligent and energetic. Every morning (after breakfasting on a bowl of porridge, five or six eggs, a plate of beans and a pot of coffee) he begins poring over a mass of reports sent him by his special agents in every branch of the government. He updates himself with the latest press clippings, telegrams and diplomatic reports. From then on, he keeps his staff hopping most of the day. He has a quick mind, reads widely, can tell racy stories or discuss foreign policy in seven languages.