Imperial Valley press., 1931-04-21

the second inStallment of SER
les of articles on Colonel
Lawrence, the unerowned king
of Arabia, now a private in the
British Air Forces.
By HENRY L. RUSSELL
United Press Staff Correspondent
BY United Press. All Rights
Reserved.
PLYMOUTH, Eng, April 81. U.P
-Aircraftsman T. e. Shaw, ones
that romantic Lawrence of Ara
bia" whose word was law from Al.
eppo TO Mocha, who welded Arabian
princes and potentates and tribes
men into o steel force and swept
the Turkish armies from the des-
ert: who built an empire vandliveo
as a dictator. has but two small
ambitions.
Perhaps Aircraftsman Sha "
would prefer to call them desires
rather than ambitions, for "ambf-
ton" to his mind. lis the cause OF
most of mankind's evils"
His two desires are merely: to
experience the thrill of leaping from
an airplane with a parachute; &c
write for a living without trading
upon the romance of his name.
You are up against contented
being" he wrote in one of his sew
eral letters to me before he agreed
TO break his long silence. And he
added that he was "only very
ordinary and pleased creature,
whose position in this R. A. F. for
bids him to give interviews for
publication" Nevertheless. there
was no ban on conversations!
"You will recognize me easily he
wrote when he finally agreed to
meet me. THE r. A. F. wear a
dull grey-blue-green uniform like
soldiers, but more scruffy. In this
I am an inconspicuous and unim-
pressive figure about five and q
half feet high. with face the col
or of q boiled lobster"
Actually. when he met me, grim
ming broadly. at the top of the
steps from which the Pilgrim faith
ers embarked on the Mayflower 300
years ago, he wore over his "scruf-
fly" uniform a black rubber coat.
I'm Shaw" he said simply, and
under his guidance we descended
the steps to water level and entered
his American speed boat for the trip
across the sound.
She's the nippest thing in these
waters" he said proudly. The
late Henry Segrave brought her
back from the makers. Purdy of
Port Washington, Long Island. She
was bought by Colin Cooper Of
London. and given TO me. We Eng
lish can't make anything that can
touch her."
So he dashed across the sound at
40 miles an hour-and I understood
the reason for the rubber coat. We
landed. drenched. at Mount Bat
ten. the Royal Air Force station.
And there he described to me the
philosophy that enable him to live
happily on go cents q day, his SOL
dier's pay.
Decries ambition
Ambition. first of all, seems to
him the cause of most of man.
kinds evils" This applies both to
personal ambition and the ambition
of nations-commercial rivalry, the
spirit of aggrandizement. If the
Egyptians had ambition, he says.
they could probably rid their land
of British occupational forces in a
decade. If Mussolini had not in
spired the Italians with ambition,
he adds. Italy probably would re-
vert to its pre-war status as a ma
tion in a decade Ten years, in his
opinion, Is sufficient time in which
to make or break a nation-or a
man.
And there are various kinds of
personal ambitions which Lawrence
cannot comprehend. Why should
he receive letters-a dozen a day
asking for his autograph? Strange
ambition, that, to have mans
signature
And these women who wrote to
him proposing marriagel Another
strang ambition!
"A recent letter came from a
WOlildIl WIlO "IOIt tiidI Silc HdS dl-
tractive,' and that was just the
type of herman she had always
longed for. Well, I'm not. I stuck
her letter on the walls of our hut
that night before the men went to
bed.
The read about the herman
and reared. They've bagged me
ever since. For Gods sake. tell
these women to stop proposing.
You will save them postage stamps
Tell them I never answer letters
anyway"
Yet Aircraftsman Shaw has two
small ambitions, as / said
Il want" he told me, ito eXper-
ience the thrill of dropping from a
great height in parachute.
imagine the feeling must be-re-
markable. I want to experience
that moment of indecision which Is