but well shaped. He was young for a major--somewhere between
thirty and thirty-five.

Once he was satisfied that I would not write him up for the
newspapers he showed no disinclination to talk, although it was
difficult to keep him on the subject of himself, and easy to let
him lose you in a maze of tribal history. He seemed to know the
ins and outs of every blood-feud from Beersheba to Damascus, and
warmed to his subject as you listened.

"You see," he said, by way of apology when I laughed at a string
of names that to me conjured up only confusion, "my beat is all
the way from Cairo to Aleppo--both sides of the Jordan. I'm not
on the regular strength, but attached to the Intelligence--no,
not permanent--don't know what the future has in store--that
probably depends on whether or not the Zionists get full control,
and how soon. Meanwhile, I'm my own boss more or less--report
direct to the Administrator, and he's one of those men who allows
you lots of scope."

That was the sort of occasional glimpse he gave of himself, and
then switched off into straight statements about the Zionist
problem. All his statements were unqualified, and given with the
air of knowing all about it right from the beginning.

"There's nothing here that really matters outside the Zionist-
Arab problem. But that's a big one. People don't realize it--
even on the spot--but it's a world movement with ramifications
everywhere. All the other politics of the Near East hinge on it,
even when it doesn't appear so on the surface. You see, the Jews