PHILBY MYSTERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 172, 23 July 1941, Page 6

PHILBY MYSTERY

ROMANTIC FIGURE •—. INTEREST IN ARABS INTERNMENT AND RELEASE (By H. J. J. SARGINT). LONDON. Some surprise was expressed in England recently when an announcement appeared that Harry St. John Philby, whom some people have described as "the last of the Elizabethans," had been released from an internment camp. Nobody knew that Philby had been interned, and no reason has been given now either for his internment or his liberation, but it is interesting to consider the personality of the man, with some reflections on the reasons which perhaps influenced the Government to act as it did. Philby is one of the romantic [British figures of the Middle East. After a brilliant career at Cambridge University, he entered the Indian Civil Service, where he verv soon began to interest himself 'in all Arabian matters. lie made several journeys of exploration to central and south-central Arabia, and became a fluent Arab scholar. He was head of the Ministry of the Interior of Mesopotamia 20 years ago. and then chief British representative in Trans-Jordan, finally retiring from Government service in order to devote his whole time to Arab affairs. He embraced the Moslem faith, and habitually wears Moslem garments when in Arabia. At the beginning of this war he was in England and made certain proposals to the British Government for enlisting the sympathy and co-operation of the Arabs in the Allied cause. Did He Threaten Exposure? The Arabs, it may be noted, do not regard the present war as any concern of theirs, but the British Government rejected Philby's proposals. The answer to why he was interned may be that the British Government may have desired to prevent Philby from exposing its present Arab policy which, he says, led to the trouble in Iraq that never would have arisen if his suggestions had been followed. Philby declares himself as disapproving of war as a means of settling international differences, without being in any way a pacifist. On the outbreak of this war he decided to maintain silence for patrioticreasons. Later he proceeded to Arabia, where he enjoys the confidence and friendship 6f King Ibn Saud. After remaining some time at Riyadh. Ibn Saud's capital, where he was in daily contact with the King, Philby decided to go to America with his family, which was still in England. He succeeded in obtaining a reservation on an American liner at Bombay and flew to Karachi, provided with all necessary visas and other permits. He had only one dav in which to travel from Karachi to Bombay to catch his ship. On landing at Karachi he was met by police, who said they had an order to detain him on a charge that he intended to carry out a propaganda campaign in India. The fact that he

had tickets for a ship sailing for the United States the next clay availed nothing. He remained in custody and eventually was sent to England. Philby was interned here for some months and then appeared before a Home Office committee, which recommended his immediate release. Owing to bureaucratic methods his release actually die! not occur until several weeks later. A Gallant, Romantic Figure Philby pays a warm tribute of admiration to the committee, which he says refused to turn itself into a star chamber. "The Government is entitled to ] credit for the creation of this brake on its own extravagance," he told the writer, "but it is the committee itself which deserves the highest praise for the defence of our democratic liberties against some very questionable legislation. To its devoted and imperturbable service of our democratic principles some thousand or more of our fellow citizens owe the recovery of their liberty, which should never have been challenged. j "A number of others recommended i for release by the committee are still j detained without formal charge or i trial. Of the rest under detention, I make bold to suggest that the Government will be unable to procure conviction in Court against more than one in ten." Philby makes a gallant, romantic figure of a man strong in the conviction of the justice in his own views, fearless in expressing them and not unworthy to rank as a pioneer British leader in distant lands with Sir Walter Raleigh, who also found himself in trouble for j not displaying sufficient pliancy with those at Court. Fortunately for Philby. whom I can well see' detained in the Tower of London with Sir Walter, and spend-1 ing whole nights in high talk with j him, he lived three and a half centuries later, when the drastic Eliza-1 bethan methods which led Raleigh to the block no longer find the same degree of favour.—"Auckland Star" and N.A.N.A.