REAL HERO OF ARABIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 3 September 1934, Page 2

REAL HERO OF ARABIA

LAWRENCE OR LEACHMAN? THE WAR RECALLED (United Press Association—By Electrin Telegraph—Copy righ 0 (Received 3rd September, 9 0 a.ui.j LONDON, 2nd September. ‘Lawrence or Leaclnnan, which was th e real hero of Arabia?” is a question raised in “Shifting .Sands,” which is being published shortly says the “Graphic,” The author Major N. N. Bray, an Indian Army officer calls Colonel Leachman one of the greatest men England produced. Hi controlled thousands of Bedouins between Baghdad and' Hedjaz, while Lawrence was working a much Smaller area; yet he lies unlionoured and forgotten in a grave in Baghdad. Major Bray was Governor of Kerbeia during the war and told the “Graphic” that- he had decided to write Leachman’s story owing to the fantastic Arabian Night’s atmosphere surround-/ ing th e British ideas of what happened in. Arabia. He says Britain backed the wrong horse when she supported Feisui. The Arabs wanted Ibn Saud and it has taken much bloodshed and gold to .rectify the mistake.. / The Arabs planned a, revolt against the Turks before the war and they wanted no romantic white leaders like Lawrence to lead them where they had already planned to go, Lcachman's task was to link the nomad tribes to Britain and frustrate the German gold propaganda. His influence extended, infinitely further than Lawrence’s, yet he was single-handed and unaided by British money. . Britain sent him to quell ail Arab rising in 1922 and a premonition that he /would not return was ful filled when he was assassinated by the son of a petty sheik whose activities he lad exposed. A German agent, I’reusser, who was captured in 1918, asked permission u> shake the hand “of the greatest man in the East.” and wrote- “ Turkish gold and blandishments and all the German effort cannot undermine the influence on the Arabs of one man— Leaclnnan,”