HAND OF LAWRENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 142, 17 June 1936, Page 7

HAND OF LAWRENCE

ARAB-JEWISH TREATY’ TRANSLATIONS PURPOSELY VARIED ASTUTE NEGOTIATIONS 1 INTERESTING REVELATIONS T.lesraph-Press Vs s oci»tion-Ccpyri g hll Received June 16, list) p.m ~,, „ , u LONDOA, June’l6. ' Ihe News-Chronivle’s Jeiu.-aleu, corlespondent says that propaganda in the Arab-Jewish struggle ha, thrown up the name of Lawrence of Arabia, who allegedly mistranslated for K.ug Feisut the Arab-Jewish Treaty signed in Lonhshed” 1819 ’ Wkich recentl y panWeizman “ ta s produced a copy of the treaty as proof that Feisul sirongly sympathised with the Jewish national home in Palestine, but th« - ia s declare that, the document is a Jewish forgery. Thts is improbable, out it is suggested, on pnotostatic copies of the treaty being produced, hat Lawrence mistranslated the treaty because ho realised that unless Feisul could be forced into giving the Jews their demands, ho could not fulfil n>s dream of a great Arab empire. Feisul who was unable to read English, added the p.-otevtive footnote weieb Lawrence translated on Dr. Weizmann’« copy and Feisul signed thus:—the Arabs are established as I asked the manifesto addressed to the British foreign Secretary, I C ar-y out this agreement.” The photostatic copy of tm’ul’s Arabic shows that he wrote; Should the Arabs obtain indepeed. mice, etcetera.” It i s sax.l that Lawrence, as a faultless Arable scholar could not have made a faulty transit tion Accordingly, it is suggested that II he mellowed Feisul’s footnote he almost certainly toned down the Zionist aspirations presented to Feisul. The Moslem Council supports this view, declaring that when it was hinted that a treaty existed, Feisul telegraphed denying his signature. This telegram is now m tho possession of Hade Bey, R signatory to the treaty and at present interned in connection w’t’i the disorders.