Lawrence of Arabia, by Anthony Nutting

[p026] Lawrence of Arabia. The Man—and the Motive. By Anthony Nutting. Hollis and Carter, 21s. This is an interesting and readable summary of the best previous studies of T. E. Lawrence. It includes a useful review of the contradictory pledges given by British authorities to the Arabs, Zionists and French in the First World War for the ‘settle- ment’ of the Middle East, and it brings out some of the underlying strategic and economic antagonisms in the area. However, it fails to convey Law- rence’s originality as a strategist or his literary power; it misses both the lessons and the excitement of ‘the Arab ‘ Resistance’. As usual, Lawrence is ‘explained’ _by inexpert ‘psychological’ specula- tions based on evidence that is frag- mentary, contradictory and probably faked by Lawrence himself. This time, it is his alleged discovery that he was a masochist, getting satisfac- tion from suffering, that ‘explains’ his crisis (not, as in Mr. Rattigan’s play, his alleged homosexuality). There is no reason to stress Law- rence’s eccentricities. Parsonages and public schools turn out many gifted individuals who administer, soldier or preach and by clinical standards are distinctly peculiar. The history of 19th century India is full of them. Lawrence was by no means the first to find through what filth lies the road to greatness in the service of imperialism. Most _ individualists make some personal adjustment between their consciences: and their

[p027] BOOK REVIEWS careers. The Establishment is experi- enced in domesticating original talents. It did not deny Lawrence his chance to settle down. Some of the gifted eccentrics sweat out their souls in prayer. Some commit suicide. Some, like Law- rence, try to retire, tortoise-like, within themselves, to lead lives de- tached from social conflicts. When they succeed it is always at the cost of mutilating themselves. Lawrence showed in the RAF that he had no insuperable difficulty in accepting authority. His real tragedy is that he saw the whole business of imperialism as a personal affront to his honour and not as a conflict of social forces. For instance, Mr. Nutting has use- fully disinterred the unpublished document in which in 1922 Lawrence could quite categorically ‘put on record my conviction that England is out of the Arab affair with clean hands’. Nutting also quotes Chur- ‘chill’s explicit statements that, as Chief British Representative in Transjordan in 1921 Lawrence ‘re- stored complete tranquillity’ by stopping his old friends and allies from raiding the French mandate in Syria. So much for the legend of the ‘tortured conscience’, Lawrence re- mained a patriot. He could not understand his own role in history. Only Bolshevism could have saved him. But his whole Oxford training and associations blocked that road; ‘his equipment for social analysis stopped with what he had learned from the Homeric epics, at the level of individual heroism. His tragedy is not at all unique in our times. How many other gifted individuals, much closer than he ever was to Marxism, have been wasted because, in resentment at having been deceived by Stalinism, they turned their backs on ‘politics? J.A. Outspoken Tory