Swan Song

When negotiations for a new Anglo-Iraqi treaty were going swimmingly in Britain, the Foreign Office thought it would be a nice gesture for King George VI to send Iraq's regent, Prince Abdul

Illah, three pairs of royal swans.* Then angry Iraqis in Bagdad rejected the treaty (TIME, Feb. 2) and forced their chief negotiator, Prime Minister Saleh Jabr, to flee to Trans-Jordan scrunched down in the back seat of his car with bullets whistling after. No one remembered to call off the shipment of swans.

Last week, King George's Swan Keeper Fred Turk, with four assistants, dutifully and warily rounded up six squawking swans from the Thames at Cookham, packed them off in pairs to hiss and sputter on the odoriferous Tigris at Bagdad. The London News Chronicle muttered sarcastically: "Might help, though."

* By ancient prerogative, the King shares ownership of Thames swans between Southwark Bridge and Henley with two City companies -- the Worshipful Companies of Dyers and Vintners. Each July, in ceremonies known as "swan-upping," swan markers round up the flocks and allocate the young cygnets. One nick is made in the lower bill to mark a Dyers' swan, two for a Vintners'; His Majesty's go nickless.

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