T. E. Lawrence to Lord Winterton

All Souls College
Oxford.

22. 4. 20

Dear Winterton,

I've hopped off here - more or less broke - for a month. They give one credit....

Yes I saw Trenchard last night. He has, as you say, 'grown' beyond measure. Pre-1914 he'd have been downed for a little Englander: now I think he is right in all points, and after quite a lot of talk I feel inclined to back his scheme. It means Salmond as H.C. in Bagdad (a happy deliverance from the I.C.S. tradition) with probably the Colonial Secretary nominally responsible, and with an Arab army under an Arab-British administration to defend the country.

Trenchard sounded to me clean and honest (for the Lord’s sake don't repeat this!) and means to play fair by the local people. He thinks as little of the worth of bombing as we did!

I told him Joyce would make the Arab army for him: it would be pleasant to see Nuri and Jaafar and the rest doing their job over again.

However more of this when we meet: but unless something provokes you beyond measure don't knock him on the head in the House, because I think he means rightly. So odd to find a man without entanglements in the city!

That talk will be great sport, and I'll look forward to it: but I doubt whether Aubrey will come so soon. Albania seems to be revolting in several ways at once, and he will probably assume its crown for a few weeks.

Yours ever,

T E L

This letter goes to the H. of C: a bad address, I think, but I always forget the other.

L.

Note: 'Aubrey' - Aubrey Herbert