F.D.R. MEETS IBN SAUD

By WILLIAM A. EDDY

BEFORE THE ALLIED LANDING ON THE COAST OF North Africa on November 8, 1942, the handful of us who knew the date and place of the landings were terrified lest we might talk in our sleep. In those days before the landings it was imperative that one neither cancel nor increase normal engagements of any kind lest he give the alert. One must plan to go to the tailor as usual to be measured for a suit, or to a barber for a haircut, or to invite Spanish friends in for a cocktail party which will never come off, just as though nothing were to happen.
We in Jidda were under the same strain in February, 1945. I had been informed that on his way home from Yalta F.D.R. wanted to meet the King secretly on board a cruiser in the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal, and I was told to arrange for this meeting. Secrecy was of the first importance because of the need to protect the security of Mr. Roosevelt…

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