Question of Balance

Tiny Lebanon prospers by being the toll bridge between the West and the Arab world, and it preserves its bit of independence by a masterly balancing of opposites. It has not held a census in 15 years, because a census would probably undo the useful fiction that it is almost exactly half Christian, half Moslem. Its electoral balancing act is unique in all the world. Having long been plagued by bloody religious feuds, Lebanon now sees to it that every man running for the same office is of the same religion.

The President is always a Maronite Christian (a Roman Catholic sect with a liturgy of its own. tracing back to a fifth century monk named Maro), the Prime Minister a Sunnite Moslem, and the Speaker of the House a Shiite Moslem. The size of the Parliament may vary, but it is usually constituted in multiples of eleven, so that all the faiths, including the Greek Orthodox, the Druse and others may be proportionately represented. The government party and the opposition each form a front to offer a candidate of the appropriate sect for each seat, and though Sunnite runs against Sunnite, and Maronite against Maronite, the issue in last week's elections was really the worldly one of whether to continue to play with the West or to line up with Nasser.

The issue was bluntly stated. "The Russians give us threats and the Americans give us money. If you were Premier, which would you take?" asked amiable, water-pipe-smoking Premier Sami Solh. The opposition, headed by former Premier Abdullah el Yafi, heavily attacked Solh's pro-Western policies, and was backed by Egypt and Syria in efforts ranging from plain money (not so plentiful as it used to be) to attempted riots. The U.S., making little effort to disguise its support for Solh, just a day before elections flew in four planeloads of jeeps and recoilless rifles as the first shipment under the Eisenhower Doctrine. Last week, as the Lebanese voted in the first of four Sunday elections for a new 66-man Parliament, 15 out of the 22 government candidates up for election came out victors. Solh himself defeated El Yafi by a comfortable 19,098 to 16,270. President Camille Chamoun, who holds the real power in Lebanon, was not up for reelection, but his pro-Western policies got a ringing endorsement.

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