From the S&S
archives:
Libyans
cheer Arabia's Saud on three-day visit
By Robert J.
Dunphy, S&S staff correspondent
European edition, Sunday, February 24, 1957
 TRIPOLI, Libya — King Saud
of Saudi Arabia, en route home from his conference with President Eisenhower,
is paying a three-day state visit to King Idris I of Libya.
The monarch's arrival Friday, which
marked the first time that any foreign chief of state has visited this country
since it achieved its independence in 1951, set off a wave of festivity.
Saudi Arabian flags, bearing an
inscription and the sword of Islam, hung from public buildings. The road from
Idris airport, 20 miles outside Tripoli, was bridged by hundreds of triumphal
arches welinfoing the monarch.
Thousands of Libyan children lined
the route into the city waving Libyan flags and chanting as Saud and Idris
drove by.
The state visit to Libya is the
fourth. that Saud has made since leaving Washington two weeks ago. The monarch
arrived here from Tunisia, where be conferred with Premier Habib Bourguiba.
Before that he had visited Morocco and Spain.
Saud's party, infoprising 50 advisers and personal attendants, landed here in
three Convairs. He was greeted by Idris and Libyan Prime Minister Mustapha ben
Halim.
Both kings stood. at attention as the
royal Libyan band played the Saudi national anthem, and Saud then greeted
members of the diplomatic corps, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya John
Tappin.
Saud attended a state banquet Friday
night tendered him by the Libyan king, and Saturday he was the guest of honor
at an Arab feast And tribal horse race.
The monarch was scheduled to depart
for Saudi Arabia Sunday following a military parade in his honor.
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