LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 January 1928, Page 3

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.

ECCENTRIC, BUT A GENIUS

People dearly love a mystery, and Lawrence of Arabia is a mystery. Part of tlie mystery is that, having become famous under his own name, he now chooses to call himself Shaw, and is an Air Force mechanic.

Lawrence is an exceptionally interesting personality. His friend. Ml book. “ Lawrence and the Arabs, sketches his life and adventures in way that leaves a complete, though ex asperating picture ol Lawrence in mind. FIVE SONS. Some extracts will give a measure of the quality of the hook, which, it should he added, is by a personal friend and written with Lawrence’s approval

His mother, who two years ago went off unconcernedly to end her days with a mission in Central ( hina . . . told me once: “We could never be bothered with girls in our house; ” and, conveniently she had five sons and no daughters. This home atmosphere possibly accounts for Lawrence’s world being so empty of women; he was brought up to do without leninle society, and tiic habit has remained with him. That he lias a fear or hatred of all women is untrue. He tries to talk to a woman as he would talk to anothei man. or to himself. U she does not return the compliment by talking to him as she would to another woman, hcleaves her. From the ordinary man’s point of view. Lawrence is undoubtedly eccentric. Nobody but an eccentric genius, with bis abilities and opportunities, would bury himself, as he lias done, lithe Air Force, as an ordinary mechanic. He avoids eating with other people. He hates . . . spending more than five minutes on a meal. Unit is way he lives mainly on bread and butter. . is bis occasional habit to knock ntf proper feeding for three tints just to make sure be can do it without teeling worried or starved. One’s sense ot things gets very keen by this fasting, he finds, and it is good practice for hard times. . . .

He is one of the rare people who have a sensible attitude towarns money. . . At the moment he has no bank balance at all, and lias taken good care not to make a penny out ot any of his writings on the Arab revolt. BRASS-HATS. Lawrence never found it easy to get 1 on with the brass hats, and the story of his Army life at first is really a determined struggle to convince the ordinary military “nabob” that the Arab revolt was worth bothering about. One of the most intimate glimpses we get of Lawrence in 1915 is of a small, grinning second-lieutenant, with hair of unmilitary length and no Tien, hiding behind a screen in the Savoy Hotel with another eoually unmilitnry colleagtte, softly counting, “ One, two, three, four!” through a hole in tho screen.

They were counting generals. An important conference was going on in the room, lor generals only. His colleague swears to me that Lawrence counted up to sixty-five. He himself onlv made it sixty-four, hut one of t.’ie brii'iidier-geneials may have movet*. SCENES IN'PARIS. At Paris Lawrence had several rows with politii inns and soldiers. The most sensational was in the hall of the Hotel .Majestic, the headquarters of the British delegation. A major-general began treating him as an interfering young follow who had no business P be poking bis nose into matters that did not concern him. Lawrence retorted warmly. 1 lie general harked out. " Don't dare to speak to me in that tone. You’re not a professional soldier.’ Ibis stirred Lawrence. ’’ No,” said he, ’’ perhaps I’m not; hut if you bad a division and 1 bad a division 1 know which ol us would he taken prisoner.” Admittedly the amateur, not the professional, scored.