“IN ARABIA AND AFTER”

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 15 June 1935, Page 11

“IN ARABIA AND AFTER”

Why Colonel Lawrence Refused Promotion

TTHEItE are some interesting sidelights upon Colonel T. E. Lawreneo, whose death has just occurred from injuries received in a. motor aceident, in B. L. Liddell Hart’s “T. E. Laivience. In Arabia and After. His intention is still (wrote Captain Liddell Hart) to settle down in his Wessex cottage, a hermitage with a window to the world', -through which he can emerge whenever inclined to visit friends, bon certs, theatres, or merely to take a, sip of the London scene. As lor work, his idea is to do translations—they can be done to time-table—to pay for liis luxuries, but- otherwise to do nothing. He knows how to'enjoy doing nothing, and thinks that lie has freed himself from the noed of activity to anaesthetise the sense of futility. But Captain Liddell Hart suggestcd the possibility of a different future ; 1 am told that the young men are talking, the young poets- writing of Lawrence in a Messianic strain—as the man who could, if he would, be a light to lead stumbling humanity out cf its troubles. ... It is difficult to see any way, compatible with Ins philosophy, in which he could play such a role. Lawrence s dislike of the pomp of power largely accounts for his post-war career: _ Lawrence had the chance of filling one of the most important posts in the British Empire. He did not refuse outright, but proposed a condition that- made bis appointment oiiicially impossible—a freedom from li\mg in formal state. . lic would have left liis official residenec empty and, taking a quiet room somewhere, would have run to and fro on hi.s motor-cycle, circulating among the people as much as possible. This biography reveals the series of

crises which have more than once ternporarily suspended Lawrence’s activities iii the Rioval Air Force. The Schneider Trophy race provided one such occasion : An I'.A.F. working party was put on to* clean the slipway for the British machines, but the Italian one was .left slippery with green scum. General Balbo, the Italian Air Minister, who 'knew T.E. cf old, came up to ask his aid. T.E., as careless of formality as Balbo- alien a job was.to.be done, promptly secured a party of aircraftmen to clean the Italian slipway. But neither the conversations nor the iu-ter-vention had passed unnoticed, Then on the day of the race-various political personages, prominent niembers of the late Government, noticed him and paused for a talk. The sequel was a notice of termination of bis contract for service, but later he was reprieved owing to the intervention of Lord Trenc-hai'd, on certain conditions. One was that he neither visited nor spoke to “great men”—Mr Winston Churchill, tile late Lord Birkenhead, a iul Sir Philip Sassoon being mentionpd as examples. Lawrence’s refusal to accept promotion is by Captain Liddell Hart as an unwillingness to -give ordel's in which he does not believe, though he does' not. apparentlv; object to obeying such orders, When he accompanied the late King .ppje-vq to Buckingham Palace, Lawronoo caused comment by wearing Arab dress. When rebitked, he replied: “When a. man- serves two mastors and lias to offend one of these, it is better to offend the more powerful. I’ve come here as interpreter to [the Emir Feisal, whose uniform this is.”