FRIEND OF ARABS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1934, Page 4

FRIEND OF ARABS

’ OFFICER’S ROMANTIC CAREER. Romance has come to a British officer who for fifteen years has struggled to save desert tribes from death and disaster. He is Captain J. B. Glubb, 0.8. E., M.C., of the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion, son of Major-general Sir f Frederick' Glubb, of Pembury, Kent, t News is received that Captain Glubb 3 is to marry Mollie Turner, daughter ; of Mr. H. A. Turner, Director of Cusi- toms and late of the Egyptian Civil j, Service. [ Captain Glubb has long held the j strings of one of the most involved s intelligence sytsems in the world. For 3 some years he was entrusted with the 1 colossal task of protecting the Bedouins of the Iraq southern desert and

their sheep and camels, and prevent-' lug them from becoming embroiled, with the-pitiless and fanatical Nejd rebels led by Faisal Darwish. These rebels were then raiding and killing near the Iraq frontier and pushing further and further into Iraq

territory as Iban Saud’s forces pressed them from the south. Captain Glubb organised a remarkable intelligence sytsem of scouts, and moved his widely spread sections of piecese on a chess board. His movemen, camels, and sheep, like the pieces on a chess board. His movements were always complicated by the necessity of using routes and areas where water and grazing were available. ' Airmen relate how they have dropped Captain Glubb out in the desert. hundreds of miles from anywhere. They would watch him fade into the heat mirages in the direction of the nearest Arab tents —and he would not bo heard of again for months. In Trans-Jordan he quickly won the hearts of all true Bedouins. The secret of his success is his sincerity, selfsacrifice, and honesty of purpose—qua- , litics appreciated by even the most fanatical Arabs.