T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 625

Letter from T.E. Shaw (Lawrence) to Lord Lloyd - 30.ix.34. Southampton. Dear G.L., I find the following notes tucked into the back of your very-much-enjoyed-and-valued Tour: Eloquence of p.l. Pity G. didn't oftener let himself go in pure writing. He does it with rhythm and selectivity. And his biblical suggestion for our Middle East interest is subtle and persuasive. The deepy is bible reading may lie at the root of some of our present inouriousness. P.9. He apologises for a subjectivity of narration - would that it were so. He writes with the far-away and rather regretful omniscience of the gods. He does not make any too clear the very mixed reception of the Cabinet of the Milner report - and the way it was deliberately shelved by Winston etc. He gives some life to that procession of dummy freak-pasts called 'Ministers' in Egypt - Rushdi, Said, Adly, Nessim, Tewfik and the rest. Not one of them ever mattered for a moment. There were only 9 parties in the King's, and racial ... politics (as apart from statesmanship) the moderate is a vehicle only; a negligible quantity, expressing or conveying only the impulses of the minority that knows what it wants - or does not want. I think one of the faults of the High Commissioner system was that he met too many pashas. 1. My statement, when they offered me the succession to Allenby, was that I'd shut up the Residency, except as offices, take a room in Shepheards, and ride about Cairo and the Nile on my motor-bike - and yet 'run' the Government of Egypt, from underneath! Out-sidoning Gorst, if I may put it so. T.E.S. p.51. G. slates Curzon - excellently - for his silly letter. p.58. Winston tried to get my consent to take Allenby's place, & so to accept his resignation at this moment. I think G. ought to have said what Allenby did in London, subsequently.