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Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem
[second draft]
Colonial Office
1922
My dear Bishop, Really! I had hoped that in the long delay since you first wrote you would have realised what you were asking. In effect you say that Dr. Kallon says that Dr. Weizmann said that I said something three years ago in Paris: that this something might ingeniously be held to reflect on you - and will I deny it!
Many odd remarks have been attributed to me in the last four years: but I have never denied any of them, because I never saw one worth denial: and this seems to me two-penny half-penny. Frankly I do not understand such sensitiveness on your part.
And you wish to send the letters to the press! That's your taste, not mine. I'd like to advise you not to issue a blank denial - it's a futile, sterile, incredible thing: nor would it be good play for you to give Dr. Kallon the benefit of your enviable publicity. In your place I'd either allow it to be stated that personally and officially you have supported the policy of the British Government in Palestine: or else I'd have it pointed out that your situation as Bishop precludes you from expressing public views on political matters. I confess to being ignorant on just how you stand on Zionism: but am sure that it is correctly.
If you are coming to England, as I suspect by the address you give me, then do drop in and see me some day - prefacing yourself if possible by a note, as my habits are as irregular as my handwriting with this awful pen. Believe me, Yours very sincerely,
T E Lawrence
| Source: | DG 343-4 |
| Checked: | mv/ |
| Last revised: | 17 February 2006 |
T. E. Lawrence chronology
1888 16 August: born at Tremadoc, Wales
1896-1907: City of Oxford High School for Boys
1907-9: Jesus College, Oxford, B.A., 1st Class Hons, 1909
1910-14: Magdalen College, Oxford (Senior Demy), while working at the British Museum's excavations at Carchemish
1915-16: Military Intelligence Dept, Cairo
1916-18: Liaison Officer with the Arab Revolt
1919: Attended the Paris Peace Conference
1919-22: wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom
1921-2: Adviser on Arab Affairs to Winston Churchill at the Colonial Office
1922 August: Enlisted in the Ranks of the RAF
1923 January: discharged from the RAF
1923 March: enlisted in the Tank Corps
1923: translated a French novel, The Forest Giant
1924-6: prepared the subscribers' abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom
1927-8: stationed at Karachi, then Miranshah
1927 March: Revolt in the Desert, an abridgement of Seven Pillars, published
1928: completed The Mint, began translating Homer's Odyssey
1929-33: stationed at Plymouth
1931: started working on RAF boats
1932: his translation of the Odyssey published
1933-5: attached to MAEE, Felixstowe
1935 February: retired from the RAF
1935 19 May: died from injuries received in a motor-cycle crash on 13 May
1935 21 May: buried at Moreton, Dorset