When TIME Correspondent Jim Bell arrived in the Middle East 18 months ago, he was handed one of the biggest assignments ever undertaken by a single reporter. His beat covered roughly 5,500,000 square miles,* in which five major languages and dozens of dialects are spoken, and in which he used any one of eleven different airlines to hedgehop from one country to another. This year, with the growing importance of news from the Middle East, it was decided that the job was too much for even such a peripatetic correspondent as Bell. Late this spring he was joined by Dave Richardson, who had been a TIME correspondent in New Delhi, Germany and London, and before that a combat correspondent for Yank.

Richardson didn't have to wait long for his formal initiation into the far-flung problems of reporting in the Middle East. He had barely settled his family in Beirut when Bell left for the U.S., to be treated for an arm injury suffered while covering the fighting in Korea. Soon after Bell's departure, two major stories broke almost simultaneously: 1) the fall and return to power of Mohammed Mossadegh's government in Iran, and 2) the abdication of King Farouk in Egypt.

Only three days before the Mossadegh government fell, Richardson had been in Teheran, talking with important political figures. All assured him things were now quiet in Iran, says Richardson, "including Mossadegh himself, who sat up in bed looking chipper and confident." Richardson flew to Jerusalem to check a report (which turned out to be unfounded) that a U.N. truce observer had resigned. He then returned to his Beirut base and found he had to write a background report on Mossadegh's successor, Qavam--only to get the report a few hours later that Qavam was out and Mossadegh back in. Says Richardson: "Famous last words among political observers out here: "But I was only there last week!'"

Then because of General Naguib's coup in Egypt, Richardson flew to Cairo, where he spent most of the next three weeks. Meanwhile, part-time correspondents in a number of capitals kept TIME informed of developments in their countries. From Teheran, Reza Kavoussi had sent in a running report of the street violence protesting the fall of Mossadegh. In Cairo. Mohamed Wagdi covered the opening hours of the Egyptian coup alone, then helped Richardson cover subsequent events.

Wagdi is chief correspondent for Al Ahram, Cairo daily, and, as one of Egypt's most respected reporters, has easy access to high officials. Kavoussi once worked for the. London Daily Express, has a sound knowledge of English. Other part-time correspondents in the Middle East are Riza Chandir in Istanbul, who operates his own Turkish news agency; Abu Said el Riche in Beirut, onetime correspondent for the London Daily Mail; Ernest Main on Cyprus and Monica Dehn in Israel. In addition to these, a wide network of observers maintains a flow of suggested stories to the Beirut headquarters.

But Bell and Richardson must constantly visit their news sources, travel about three weeks of every month. With 90 extra pages added to the normal 48 pages of his passport, Bell now carries that bulky document in a briefcase. To keep visas valid for quick take-offs to new trouble spots, both men apply for new visas immediately on returning from any country. At first, legation officials objected: "But you've just come back." But now, reports Richardson: "They know us and treat us like commuters buying a new monthly ticket for the 8:05." On a recent return to Beirut, the first two questions asked Richardson by his three year old daughter, Hilary, were: "Where have you been, daddy? . . . Where are you going, daddy?"

Bell came near to developing an inferiority complex once when interviewing a Kurdish chieftain in his mud hut near the Russian border. When the tribesman asked how many wives and sons he had, Bell owned up to one of each. Said the chieftain: "That makes me twice the man you are. I have two wives and two sons." Back in his headquarters in Beirut this week, Bell is feeling better about his social status. With the arrival of the Richardson, the TIME bureau, at least, can boast of two wives.

Cordially yours,

* Area of the U.S.: 3,022,387 square miles.

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