WONDERFUL MAN

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXX, Issue 188, 17 August 1935, Page 6

WONDERFUL MAN

WHO GOT ON WITH HIS WORK LAWRENCE OF ARABIA Fear no more the heat o’ the Sun, Nor the fuiiious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone and ta’en thy wages. One of the most remarkable Englishmen of our time, Lawrence of Arabia, has passed away from mortal men. He is one with the immortals, writes Arthur M;ee in, Inis weekly newspaper.

History' will enrol him in the company' of Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh and all those other strong souls who drew from out the ranks of their fellow Englishmen to do great work for their country' in the hour of her need. But what will most .mark him out even among these great ones will be that, when h‘is work was done, Lawrence of Arabia sank himself in Aircraftsman Shaw, a plain man who deliberately set aside honours or rewards or distinctions. His creed simply was that he had performed his appointed task, and there was no reason for him making further fuss about it. or about him.

Nothing about him was ordinary. He was a fine scholar, learned in the languages and the unwritten history of the Near East. He was marked out to become one of the distinguished archaeologists of Syria, Arabia and Palestine, and we may note in passing that Kitchener began his career in the same way. A Tremendous Personality There the resemblance ends. War drew Lawrence from his studies and inquiries, and nobody thought, when his knowledge of the Arabs and the native peoples enlisted him in the Intelligence Department of the Near Eastern forces, that he was anything more than a highly intelligent interpreter —of thought as well as speech. But in this modest unassuming young man was something more than high intelligence. There was a tremendous personality, a powerful character with the inspiration of genius. It was this which raised him from the ruck, and made him the unquestioned master, the absolute leader, of the untamed, undisciplined host of Arab tribes. Wild, turbulent, most of them nomads and many of them brigands, they had never before nnd a universally acknowledged chieftain. They accepted Lawrence, a man neithc r of their race nor religion. It is one of the most astonishing facts of history. His Service to Mankind Hardly less astonishing was Lawrence’s ability to impress his personality on British commanders, who are not ready to admit the merits of amateurs. They accepted Lawrence They came to believe in him. I.ord Allenby was one of his warmest admirers and supporters, and the admiration, was not misplaced. The ragged Arabian levies led by Lawrence made possible Allenby’s triumph in, Palestine and the rout of the Turkish Army. There is no need to dwell on that phase of the concluding years of the war. Triumph and rout do not seem very important now. But one fruit will not fall from the tree Lawrence watered. He consolidated the Arab peoples, and so rendered a great service to mankind. He could do no more. He lived to see much of his labour wasted, but there was no bitterness in his heart. To him the words of Edith Cavcll, that patriotism was not enough, had a real meaning. His task was done. Nothing more was asked by this man than that he should be left to live out his life in peace and thought. His wish was granted, for he lived the last of his

life in a little cottage in a Dorset lane, where he was on his •motor-cycle when he collided with a boy cyclist. It was the end, for his skull was fractured and for five days he lay unconscious, with the best skill on the earth at his bedside. Then he passed on into the Universe; with not one word spoken in those five days this silent man went into the Great Silence of Eternity. He was only 47 and he had made himself one of the great men of the world, whose rule of life was the rule which so many might copy with profit in these days: to get on with the work of the world and talk less about ill. 1