Evening star., 1935-05-20
Lawrence, the Man of Mystery.

When Thomas E. Lawrence died Sun
day morning in England from injuries
received in motor cycle accident sew
eral days previously, his life ended in
mystery. even as it was passed for the
greater part of his remarkable career.
The first reports of his misadventure
indicated that it was due to the high
speed at which he was driving his
machine. But as he lay in coma for
hours afterward. rumor S, read
through England that he was the VIC
tim of a plot, that he had, in fact,
been shot from ambush 1t was inti-
mated that his brain held England's
war plans and that sinister forces
had been set in motion to remove
him. 1t was also reported that the
victim of the accident was not
Lawrence, who was said in fact to
be in the Far East on a secret mission.
Again it was bruited that foreign
agents had caused mysterious fires
near the cottage in Dorsetshire where
Lawrence lived in an effort to obtain
or destroy invaluable documents.
These reports were denied promptly.
but whatever the outcome of the
accident, they will probably persist.
for the very name of Lawrence stands
for the unknown, the inscrutable.
There is in truth nothing really
mysterious about Lawrence. He was
born in Wales in 1888, was educated
at Oxford, became interested in the
history and the archaeology of the Near
East, went out in 1911 to explore
Syria and Mesopotamia, later becom-
ing attached to a survey party for the
war Office. In the course of these
occupations he learned Arabic and
acquired an intimate knowledge of the
character Of the people Of that region.
At the outbreak of the Great War, he,
being below standard height, was un-
able to enter active service and was
given a post in the geographical sec
ton of the war Office After Turkey
had joined the central powers he was
sent by Lord Kitchener to Egypt and
attached to military intelligence
section there. 1t was from that post
that he crossed the Red Sea and be-
came the moving spirit in the nego-
tiations which led to the revolt of
the Arabs against Turkey. His part
in this successful flank movement was
highly rated and he was attribut-
ed a large share of the credit for
the collapse Of the cause of the central
powers in the East. Greatly disap-
pointed with the failure of the allied
powers to fulfill what he considered
their moral obligations to the Arabs,
he left the government service in
1922 and, abjuring all official rank
and decorations, he changed his name
to Shaw and enlisted as a lieutenant
in the Royal Air Force. Later un-
welcome publicity led him to hide
in the Tank Corps and subsequently
to retransfer to the air force, accepting
only the position of a mechanic. Al
few years ago he was sent out to
India for duty on the northwestern
frontier. being recalled to England
in 1928.
Lawrence, or Shaw as he preferred
to be known, has been q mystery to
the public because of a peculiar tenn
Publicity was anathema
to him. Quite recently letter of
his was brought to light in this coun-
try which appeared to throw doubt
In some minds upon the validity of
his most famous writing, the book
entitled THE Revolt in the Desert"
which by a distortion of his language
was made to suggest that the compo-
sition was chiefly fiction. That, of
course, was ridiculous, because there
is complete proof in official writings
of the verify of that stirring narrative.
With different psychology, Thomas
E. Lawrence might have become one
of the greatest figures in recent world
history.