From the far-flung corners of the Moslem world, pilgrims last week converged on Mecca, city of the Prophet's birth, where they would make the ritual seven circuits around the shrouded monument and enter to kiss the Black Stone handed down by the Angel Gabriel to Abraham. If they took time to notice, they might have detected a change in the air. Along the six-lane highway that leads inland to Mecca from the Red Sea port of Jiddah, pilgrims were ministered to by mobile hospitals, reservoirs of ice water, and troops of Moslem Boy Scouts. In the capital of Riyadh, lights burned late in the massive ministries along the main, four-lane boulevard, and a Saudi businessman rejoiced: "Now you get decisions even without going personally to the top." Said another: "Formerly when King Saud built a new palace, that was news. Now it's news when he inaugurates a new factory for making bottled gas, as he did recently in Riyadh." Inside the seven-mile-long walls of his air-conditioned Na-ziriyah Palace in Riyadh, King Saud was embarking on a program of economic expansion and modest social reform.
Austerity Behind. By Saud's decision, Saudi Arabia is leaving behind a two-year stretch of austerity that a man of his royal tastes found painful—even though the program was useful and was ably run by Saud's younger brother, Crown Prince Feisal, 56, the hawk-nosed heir to the throne. Taking over virtually all powers in 1958, Feisal proceeded to turn in surplus budgets and stabilize the faltering rial at five to the dollar. He clipped the King's and the princes' spending money until they howled. He also patched up Saud's feud with Nasser, who was understandably annoyed at reports that Saud had spent $5,000,000 trying to have him assassinated. But Feisal had his shortcomings. Says a Saudi merchant: "He would not delegate authority. Feisal had great, almost puritanical integrity, but he was not a man of decision. His desk piled high. Prices dropped but business died."
Last December, with the backing of most of the princes and after many tearful quarrels, Saud accepted Feisal's resignation as Premier and took the job himself. To get the economy moving, Saud turned to another brother, Prince Talal, 30, who as Finance Minister runs the country with the help of its most powerful commoner, Abdullah Tariki, 42, Minister of Petroleum, Mines and Education.
Moving Faster. Construction projects that halted two years ago will get going again, though the budget is to remain in balance. Talal and Tariki are busy on a $45 million-a-year program, drawn up by the World Bank, of small basic-development projects. Says Tariki, a University of Texas-trained geologist: "We need water, roads, education and, if possible, diversification of our economy. We have a planning board now, and things move much faster." Talal and Tariki talk about a petrochemical industry to make use of the 200 million cubic feet of gas that go to waste daily in the oilfields.