T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 238

- 4 - cause-of-laughter, and he has laughed as loudly, and has called me Alexander sometimes since... It isn't the whole story, though. There was an old Alexander which survived its part, and a bit of an actor, and a sorry fellow, and many other fellows: all of which I tried to tell of in that book I tried to write. I was fit to see it at you two or three years ago, when its matter was still fluid. I suppose you are right now in not wanting to read it, since it's fixed and done with and for. Saw S.S. at Max Gre...the other ... You can't imagine what a delight the Hardys are to me." 16/9/26. "We are all intact and intangible and separate in the end." 9.VI.27 "You must, without my help, find the puckers and creases and holes in my armour." 28.VI.27 (Biographical Notes) "I take most of the credit of Winston's pacification of the Middle East upon myself. I had the knowledge and the plan. He had the imagination and courage to adopt it, and the knowledge of political procedure to put it in operation, in the Middle East and in London, peacefully. When it was in working order, in March 1922, I felt I had attained every point I wanted. The Arabs had their chance, and it was up to them to take their own mistakes and profit by them. The period of leading strings was ended. That's why I abandoned politics, and enlisted. My job was done, as I wrote to Winston at the time. The work I did; constructively, in 1921 and 1922, was the best I've ever done. It redressed, to my mind, the risks I took with others' lives and happiness in 1917 and 1918". ........ "Will you, finally, make clear that I like the R.A.F.? The being cared for, the rails of conduct, the impossibility of doing irregular things, are desagréable. The comradionship, the interesting labour, the occasional leisures are actively pleasant. While my health lasts I'll keep in it. I did not like the Army: but the R.A.F. is as different from the Army as the air is from the earth. In the Army the person is at a discount: the combined movement, the body of men, is the ideal. In the R.A.F. there are no combined movements: its drill is a bore, except what goes separated squad is specially trained for a tattoo or ceremony. Our idea is the skilled individual mechanic at his bench or machine. We grudge every routine duty; and perform our parades deliberately Ill, lest we lose our edges, and become degraded into parts of a machine. In the Army the men belong to the machine. In the RAF the machines (upon earth) belong to the men, and in the air to the officer. So the men have the more of them." ........ "During the campaign I put my pay into the show's expenses. I felt that I might be a cat's paw or a crook, but would keep my amateur status; likewise I felt, when serving for Winston, that I couldn't personally profit in any way by the salary (£1000 a