HERO OF ARABIA

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 55, 3 September 1934, Page 9

HERO OF ARABIA

QUERY IN NEW BOOK

LAWRENCE OR. LEACHMAN ?

ADMIRER'S TRIBUTE

United Press Association— By Electric graph—Copyright(Received September 3, 1 p.m.) LONDON, September 2, Lawronce or Loachnian, which was the real hero of Arabia? is a question raised by "Shifting. Sands," a book which is being published shortly, says the "Graphic"-The author is Major Jv. N. Bray, an Indian Army officer, who calls Colonel Leachman ouo of tho greatest men England has produced. He controlled thousands of. Bedouins bctwoon Bagdad and tho Hcdjaa, while Lawrence "was working a much smaller area. Yet Leachman lies unhonouro'l in a forgotten grave at Bagdad. Major Bray was Governor of Kerbela during the war. He told th« "Graphic" that he decided to write Leachrasn's story owing to the fantas tic Arabian Nights atmosphere surrounding British ideas of what happened in Arabia. He says that Britain backed the wrong horse when she supported tho Emir Feisal. Tho Arabs wanted Ibn Baud. It has taken much bloodshed and gold tou-ectify tho mistake. Tho Arabs planned a revolt against tho Turks before tho war and wanted no romantic white loaders nko Lawronco to lead them where they had already plannod to go. Lcachnian's task was to link the nomad tribes to Britain and frustrate Gorman gold and propaganda. • His influence extended infmitqly further thins Lawrence's, yet he worked singlehanded and unaided by British money. Britain sent him to quell the Arab risin" in 1922. A premonition that he would not return was fulfilled when he was assassinated by the sou of a petty sheik, whose activities wove exposed. A'Gorman agent, named Proussor, captured in 1918, asked permission to shako tho hand of tho greatest man in tho East and wrote, ''Turkish gold and^ blandishmonts and all the German effort cannot undcrmirio the influoneo on the Arabs of ono man, Lcachman.