Redbeards to Mecca

War-risk insurance has kited shipping costs skyward. Britain is harder pressed than ever for shipping space, and has not enough warships to safeguard her own sea lanes. Yet the Moslem faithful of India this week set sail for Mecca in British ships, convoyed by the Royal Navy, paying pre-war fares ($52 for deck space, $186 first class) for the privilege. Government subsidies will offset any possible loss to the shipowners. In his resting place (halfway between heaven and earth), Mohammed the Prophet was doubtless gratified.

Thirteen centuries ago Mohammed gave a spiritual and material boost to his native Mecca by calling upon his followers to make a pilgrimage thither at least once in their lifetimes. Pious Moslems have been making the Haj ever since, thus gaining the privilege of: 1) being called Haji (pilgrim), 2) wearing green turbans, 3) dyeing their beards red with pounded hennaleaves.

From India, some 11,000 Mohammedans annually make the Haj. Last November India's Moslems sizzled when the Marquess of Linlithgow, India's Viceroy, announced that because every ship was needed for World War II, Hajis would have to wait for peace to make their pilgrimage. When the clamor continued, the Viceroy had to yield. This year Britain had learned her lesson. With the Axis driving for the Near East, British solicitude for India's Hajis seemed likely to last for the duration.

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