Show LAURENS 11 OF ACTION 11 DIES the dally daily press of monday carried the news on the front page fiat col T E lawrence lawrence of ar AT abia had died from the results of a motor acle accident T E R lawrnce was one of the mot molt mo t fascinating characters of the world war he was a young man from a good though relatively poor family and had lad a flare for archeology as his interest was aroused when he dug up some ancient roman relics relies on his father fathers s property this inter est never left him studied at ox ford and for graduating thesis went afoot into syria learned their dia lebits and associated not biti the rich and mighty but with the poor and commonplace he constantly sought to get the point of view of persons he met so as to get a cross section of life and how they felt about conditions his ardie work took him to the euphrates where his skill in handling the native arab worl men on the job made iliin indi spen ible his camp was always quiet enthusiastic tor for the work in hand land and ederly but the german camp a halt half mile away was always the con arary riots ion and ill will his knowledge of arabic en abbed win to penetrate into their minzi and settle differences with a justice that clicked with their stand ards he took many trips on his own into the interior always in native dress and on each trip stored his mind with the topography of t tie ae re glon getting a mass of facts which later was of gibat value when the war broke out because ot of his antim ate knowledge he was put into the intelligence service where soon his Ws superior officers recognized his first ihland information and gave him a greater activity he saw the need of an arab levolt against turkey to aid 46 1 the cause of the alles fathered this venture through to a is sue actually led tie victorious arab forces into damascus routed the ha t t ea ted turks and was admiringly hail hall ed by the arabs he had led as hall hail laurens harbinger of action ac tion is life to the araba and law rence certainly gave tiem t iem action he shunned publicity when the english wished to decorate lum for his service he sidestepped the hon or he was though persuaded to ac capt the commission of colonel he read the ancient greek writer Aristo phenes in te foi di version studied the mobile military tactics of tacitus and xenophon was thoroughly familiar with mar shall s famous tactics but re fused in his warfare to use them and enshrouded I 1 himself in mystery his written work entitled the revolt in the desert Is fascinating reading packed with action thrills and danger humor and many tine fine side lights on human nature the book gave him instant tame fame in liter ary circles he worked for tour four years on A ai translation of the odis sey into englisch lh and left with the british museum some manuscript on the war and its after breaking of 0 pledges in the versalles treaty with instructions that it was not to tp ible op ened until fifty years after his death the irony of fate was that he liv ed t through the world war only to meet his death on a quiet country side english road when he swerved his motorcycle to avoid hitting a boy lawrence Lawren ces s life Is most interest ing lowell thomas has written a book about him his name and tame fame is are almost a by word to well informed readers to the great number of persons who have enjoyed immensely his written story of the arab revolt his death is felt i ith sorrow vale laurens may the arabs never forget you |