RED REVOLUTION PROPAGANDA

Hokitika Guardian, 28 September 1928, Page 4

RED REVOLUTION PROPAGANDA

ACTIVITY IN INDIA.

COLONEL LAWRENCE SAID TO BE INVESTIGATING.

DELHI, September 25. The Punjab authorities are activel^ib

combating Red propaganda in the province. It is rumoured that Colonel Lawrence, the “uncrowned king of Arabia,” who is now in the Air Force, is disguised as a holy man and is engaged in a. mission to discover the secret Bolshevik headquarters in Am ritsar.

Colonel Lawrence’s uncanny influx once over the Arabs had a far-reaching effect on the Near East campaign during the war. Educated at Oxford, a young, delicate-looking man then in his early twenties, he was studying achseology when the war broke out. His knowledge of the customs and the language of the Arabs, his sympathy with their cause, and his own unusual temperament, fitted him to become the the leader of the tribes against the Turks. His subsequent exploits and amazing adventures earned him a reputation unique and mysterious. He took part in the peace negotiations at Versailles in 1919, and was adviser on Arab affairs to the Colonial Office in 1921-22. But he considered that the Allies had betrayed the Arabs, and according to Mr Robert Graves, who has Lawrence’s authority for printing it, went to Buckingham Palace and, in an interview with King George, “ explained personally to his sovereign that the part he had played in the Arab revolt was dishonourable to himself and to his country and the Government. He had, by order, fed the Arabs with false hopes, and would now be obliged if he might he quietly relieved of the obligation to accept honours, for succeeding in his fraud. • He said respectfully as a subject, but firmly as an individual, that he intended to fight by straight means or crooked until his Majesty’s Ministers had conceded, to the Arabs a fair settlement of their claims.” • Accordingly, Colonel Lawrence declined the honours which-: had been awarded' him. Shortly afterwards he resigned his commission and joined the Air Force as a mechanic, under the name of RoW/ His identity was discovered (it iS’ said that an officer found out and sold the secret to a London paper for £3O), and he had to leave. Later he joined the Tank vmrps, and now he is in the Air Forcer having secured official permission this- time He has legally adopted the name of Shaw.