SECOND LAWRENCE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 228, 19 May 1932, Page 2

SECOND LAWRENCE

LONE AUSTRALIAN OFFERS PLANE AND SERVICES TO KING OF MECCA. IN THE HOLY CITY. Denied a job in his own country, Flying-Officer Garth Klein has gone to Arabia. There he has the chance of becoming a second Colonel Lawrence — a lone Australian among a swarm of infidel-hating Wahabis. He has resolved to lay his flying helmet and his experience at the sandhardened feet of Ibn Saud, the power- • ful and ambitious King of Mecca. just before he sailed in the Maloja, Klein said: "I've spent almost the last of my hard-earned savings coming home to Australia to look for a job, but it was about as hopeless as a forced landing in the Kelly country. Australia doeS not want airmen, so there's nothing left for me to do but accept King Ibn Saud's offer to take charge of his Arabian Air Force." Who is this Ibn Saud; what need has he for an Air Force, and what mann'er of place to-day is his capital, Mecca? Does he plan to raise an Arabian Empire in the desert air, or are his aims merely protective? Emir Ibn Saud, the fierce chieftain who forsook his tribal huntinggrounds in the' hinterlands of the Hedjaz, seized Mecca, and drove old King Hussein — a monareh under the protection of the British Government — into exile. Knowing the unofficial guerilla warfare that Ibn Saud's fanatical Wahabis — strict Mohammedans, who neither drink nor smoke — carry on from time to time, the British Government is wise to make it a condition of aeceptance that Flying-Officer Klein must not take part in any fighting. Klein's life in Arabia will be a strange one. As a Christian and an unbeliever, he will not, of course, be allowed to set foot in holy Mecca itself; but he will have an opportunity of watching the comings and goings of pilgrims and potentates, and of gauging just what Ibn Saud plans to do — a thing the whole world would like to know. Mecca Still Holy. Although within the past few years Mecca, the carefully-guarded core of the Mohammedan world, has made the acquaintance of motor transport, aeroplanes, telephones, and wireless, these Western inventions have not changed it into a modernised Arabian city. Ibn Saud realises that a westernised Mecca would lose much of its magnetic enchantment for the thousands of pilgrims who, in normal times, go there every year from corners of Islam as far distant as Siberia, Morocco, Java, and Borneo. Lately the trade depression has caused a marked falling off in the pilgrim business, and to advertise Mecca abroad Ibn Saud has had a special sound picture nnr, recorded and edited by Mohammedans. Until King Ibn Saud started a mo-tor-bus service along the rock-strewn 70 miles track between Jiddab on the Red Sea coast and inland Mecca, pilgrims had to jog painfully through the harren dividing belt on camels, horses and donkeys. The territory around Mecca itself is held as sacred for some distance. In it no fighting may take place, no living thing he killed except animals for food and certain vermin, and no plant may be cut down. It is forbidden to kill snakes in the holy area and motor cars have to zig-zag all over the dusty roads to avoid them. Sciene of Bloodshed. Iln spite of the Koranic injunction against fighting, the holy territory, and even the courtyard of the great mosque in Mecca itself, has more than once been the scene of bloodshed. Tn 1916, for 'instance, when the Arahi joined the Allies, a detachment of King Hussein's troops attacked with rifle fire a party of Turks who h^d taken refuge in the mosque. The city of Mecca li'as in a otutfy hasin half a mile wide and two miles long, enclosed by high, wall-like hills of rock. Although it is well built for an Eastern city, it cannot he callol beautiful from an architectural poi.it of view. No splendid doi^is nor Sultan's turrets throw a fretwork against its skies; yet millions of beauty-loving Mohammedans long for a glimpse of its box-like Kaaba and the tortuous lanes which surround it. The word "Kaaba" is Arahic for chamber, and, in addition, Mohammedans call this 50ft high cube Bayt Allah, the Honse of God. The atmosphere of sanctity is studiously maintained, but Western influences are creeping in. Besides establishing an air force, King Ibn Saud recently commissioned the Marconi Company to build 15 broadcasting stations to linlc every im-portant-centre in his kingdom.