First edition, limited to 1,000 copies, this number 299 of 970 in a quarter niger binding. Lawrence’s Secret Despatches were reprinted from The Arab Bulletin (a paper initiated by Lawrence), which produced ‘“Summaries” of political news received from the Turkish Empire, Arab and other Moslem countries, and Abyssinia. After six of these had been issued in typescript, in rapid succession, the “Bulletin” received its final title and shape as a printed magazine. Henceforth its tendency was to appear at less frequent intervals and to contain articles of more lasting value. Of the first few numbers only twenty-six copies were printed, for distribution to the British authorities – civil, military or naval – in the Near and Middle East, and to the Foreign Office, War Office, and Admiralty in London; the contents were to be treated as “strictly secret”’ (p. 5). As Clements notes, the nature of The Arab Bulletin meant that ‘[t]he topics discussed are extremely varied and range from the religious views of Hussein to military operations against the Hedjaz railway, and because of their secret nature, have an honesty of approach’. ¶¶

Secret Despatches from Arabia gathers together all of Lawrence’s contributions to The Arab Bulletin, which were either identified by his initials printed beneath them or by Lawrence’s notes in his own set of the journal. It also includes the previously unpublished article ‘Syrian Cross Currents’, which was ‘[w]ritten by T.E. Lawrence in 1918, on Arab Bureau paper, but not included in the Arab Bulletin’ (p. 155). Secret Despatches from Arabia was the second of the four works by Lawrence to be published by the Golden Cockerel Press; the others were Crusader Castles (1936), Men in Print (1940), and Shaw-Ede: T.E. Lawrence’s Letters to H.S. Ede, 1927-1935 (1942). ¶¶

This copy is from the library of David Summers, who was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Summers was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1937, and in the early years of World War II he attended the Cavalry School at Karkur in Central Palestine. Summers records on the upper pastedown, in an apparently later note in ink, that this copy ‘was side-lined [i.e. marked in the margins] by me during the Second World War when I was attending the Cavalry School at Karkur in Palestine. I was writing a treatise on the use of the 1st Cavalry Division and their possible role in the event of the Germans invading Syria, the Lebanon and Palestine through Turkey. My ideas were that they should operate on the eastern flank of any advance from the hills as Lawrence did and that supplies should be stock piled in the hills so that small units could operate behind the German forces as they advanced towards their objective, Cairo’. ¶¶

The marginal markings by Summers occur on some 30 pages, and he has annotated a further four. Some of these markings and annotations translate Arabic words in the text (e.g. on p. 81 ‘harrahs’ is annotated ‘lava’), but many consider the success of Lawrence’s campaign some 25 years earlier and the lessons which might be drawn from them in World War II. For example, on p. 22 the sentence ‘The average range possible is from 200 to 300 yards, and at point-blank ranges the Arabs shoot quite well’ has been marked and in the following sentence the comment that light machine guns should be ‘capable of being carried by hand uphill’ has been underlined. The passages on practicalities of working with Arab soldiers have also been read with interest, and the sentence ‘Inter-communication between units of the Arab forces is often hindered by there being no person in a force who can actually read and write’ has been marked (p. 60). Similarly, the problems British soldiers might face are also identified, such as Lawrence’s comment that a ‘cotton shirt is a handy garment, but not adaptable to such sudden changes in temperature’ (p. 92). Summers appears to have found Lawrence’s famous ‘Twenty-Seven Articles’ – intended as a vade mecum for ‘beginners in the Arab armies’ – particularly relevant and has glossed it ‘Very very good’ (p. 126). ¶¶

Following service in Syria, Iran, and Iraq, Summers subsequently fought in the Italian campaign and was mentioned in dispatches for his actions in Sicily in 1944. Summers left the army with the rank of major, and he was later appointed a Justice of the Peace for Gloucestershire, serving as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1964. ¶¶

F.A. Clements, T.E. Lawrence: A Reader’s Guide, pp. 45-48; P. O’Brien, T.E. Lawrence (2000), A226; C. Sandford and O. Rutter, Pertelote, 145. ¶¶¶