The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (11)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Prologue (11)

 

011. McMahon-Hussein Correspondence (2/2)

 It was this moment that the British military officer Thomas Edward Lawrence, so-called "Lawrence of Arabia", worked as an advisory staff of King Faisal. The name of "Lawrence of Arabia" might give the impression that Lawrence led Arabs with his own tactics and achieved the victory. However, this was wholly illusion made by UK. He was merely a liaison officer of the British Army. His duty was to handle military logistics such as war chest, weapons and ammunition supplied from the UK to the Arabs.

 

He himself believed that his country would faithfully keep the promise of the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence. However, after the war, the land actually allocated to the Arabs was far from their expectation. T.E. Lawrence lost the trust of Arabs. His heart was torn. He returned to UK and afterwards lost his own life by a motorcycle accident.

 

In the Arab world, Lawrence is regarded as "the minions of the UK" and has not been appreciated at all. On the other hand, Western people who is the winner of the war created a hero at one’s discretion.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)