only occasional lapses into French and English.
“Mr. Howell, tell me about your company,” he began.
The tone was patronizing. I had noticed that he had a copy of my aide-mémoire on the table in front of him, so I nodded toward it “It is all there, Dr. Hawa.”
“No, Mr. Howell, it is notall there.” He flicked the papers disdainfully. “What is described there is a gambit, an opening move in which a small piece is sacrificed to secure a later advantage. We would like to know what game it is that we are being invited to play.”
I knew then that I would have to be careful with him . Chain-smoker he might be, but he was certainly no fool. If he had been English he would probably have described my aide-mémoire as a sprat to catch a mackerel, but gambit was also a pretty accurate description - too accurate for my liking. I looked at the senior official.
“What I had hoped for here, sir,” I said sternly, “was a serious discussion of serious proposals. I have no intention of playing any sort of game.”
“Dr. Hawa was speaking figuratively, of course.”
Hawa had a thin smile. “As Mr. Howell appears to be so sensitive I will put the matter another way.” He looked at me again. “You ask, Mr. Howell, for ministerial endorsement of an application for the release of blocked funds in order that they may be reinvested here. In return you undertake to confer on the state a number of economic blessings, the nature of which you hint at, but the value of which you leave to the imagination. More specifically, however, you offer to relinquish control of your remaining enterprises here, including a tannery and a flour mill, so that they may become cooperatives working under government auspices. Naturally we are curious about the spirit and temper of this strange gift horse, and about the business philosophy of the giver, the man who is seeking funds for reinvestment. So, I ask you to satisfy our curiosity.”
Ishrugged. “As you probably know our company here has hitherto been a family affair. My grandfather and my father before me have done business in this country for many years. I think it fair to say that it has been useful business.”
“Useful? Don’t you mean profitable?”
“For me that is a distinction without a difference, Dr. Hawa. Useful and profitable, of course. Is there any other kind of business worth doing?” I thought I had his measure now. In a moment he was going to start talking about ownership of the means of production. I was wrong.
“But useful to whom, profitable to whom?”
“Useful to all those of your people to whom our company pays good wages and salaries - here, I may remind you, we employ only Syrian nationals. Profitable certainly to our company’s shareholders, but profitable also to the successive governments, Turkish, French, and Syrian, which have taxed us. Dividends have not always been certain, but wages and taxes have always been promptly paid.” And, I might have added, so had the bribes, petty and not so petty, which were part of any Levantine overhead; but I was still trying to handle him tactfully.
“Then why, Mr. Howell, are you so eager to relinquish control of these useful and profitable businesses?”
“Eager?” I gave him a blank stare. “I assure you, Dr. Hawa, that I am not in the least eager. My impression is that ultimately I will have no choice in the matter.”
“Ultimately, perhaps, but why this premature generosity? Understandably, I think, we find it puzzling, and a little suspect.”
“Only because you are not looking at my proposals as a whole. I think I am being realistic.”
“Realistic? How?”
I might have replied that had I not puzzled them by offering to hand over the Syrian assets of the Agence Howell, we would not have been sitting there discussing what was to become of its blocked funds. Instead I gave my prepared answer.
“At present the government lacks the administrative machinery to implement its socialist program for