FRIEND OF ARABS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21758, 24 March 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

FRIEND OF ARABS

CAREER OF SOLDIER PROTECTING BEDOUIN TRIBES Romance has como to a British officer who for 15 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 Frederick Glubb, of Pom bury, Is cut News 's received that Captain Glubb is to marry Miss Mollie J Turner, daughter of Mr. H. A. Turner, Director of Customs and late of the Egyptian Civil Service. N Captain Glubb has long held the strings of one of the most involved intelligence systems in the world. For some years he was entrusted with the colossal task of protecting the Bedouins of the Iraq southern desert and their sheep and camels, and preventing 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 Ibn Saud's forces pressed them from the south. Captain Glubb organised a remarkable desert intelligence system of scouts and moved his widely spread sections of men, 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 be 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 —qualities appreciated by even the most fanatical Arabs.