Lawrence of Arabia and Herbert of Albania

From: Daut Dauti

People being popular doesn't mean they are important. History knows many people who have been very important, but have not enjoyed the popularity and respect that some insignificant others have.

Lawrence of Arabia (Thomas Edward Lawrence) is very popular in the world. It is popularized mainly because of the movie "Lawrence of Arabia", which is otherwise one of the best movies ever made (at least 30 books have been written about it). Lorenci was an archaeologist and after he was engaged in the Ottoman territory, the British secret service recruited him in 1914. When the First World War began, after he was in the service, in 1916 he was sent to Cairo and from there he received the task of convincing the Arabs that to rise against the Ottoman power - against which Great Britain was fighting. He was not the only officer sent to the Arabs for this purpose. But, Al Lorenci, as the Arabs called him, did not do any other important work besides this, and at that time no one knew about this.

Lorenci would probably remain unknown and we would not hear about him if it were not for the American journalist, Lowell Thomas. Lorenci became popular after the war and mainly due to the initiative of Thomas, who was a war correspondent. In 1919, Thomas held a lecture tour in Britain and the USA praising Lorenc. He had photographs and film footage of his activity in Arabia, and that was interesting at the time. And, within a short time, Lorenci, from an archaeologist and an ordinary man of the British military secret service, transforms into a hero and media star of international proportions.

There is another British personality who has done several times more work than Lorenci. He is Aubrey Herbert, also known as the best friend the Albanians have had and to whom the Albanians offered the royal throne. But for Herbert, there is no film and there are no more than 5-6 books that have been written about him, counting the ones he wrote himself. Therefore, Herbert, the meritorious man, like many others, has remained in the shadows.

In the office of the British military secret service in Cairo, Herbert and Lorenci worked together. There are even indications that Herbert was Lorenzo's superior. There is a reason for this since Herbert, apart from being educated and having a military rank (colonel), he was also an aristocrat, that is. he had connections throughout the elite of British society.

There is evidence of a joint operation that Herbert and Lorenci carried out together with Colonel Beach on April 29, 1916. The British military command sent these three (Herbert was probably the main one) to Kut (Iraq) to negotiate with Halil Pasha. , the commander of the Ottoman forces that surrounded the British military garrison in Basra. The British were in dire straits and before capitulation. In order for this not to happen, these three offer Halil Pasha a bribe of two million pounds. This money was for Halil Pasha to allow the withdrawal of 10 thousand besieged British soldiers. But the pasha did not accept the bribe and their mission failed and the garrison fell to the Ottomans and the British were captured.

There is no other activity of Lorenc, while those of Herbert during the war are numerous. In Çanakkale (Gallipoli) it was always Herbert who negotiated the cease-fires. Herbert, being a Turkophile, enjoyed respect among the Turks and therefore the British engaged him in every case. Even Herbert, during the war (1917), was sent to Switzerland on a mission for secret talks with the Ottoman leaders.

If books are written and movies are made for the deserving, the first to have movies and books would be Aubrey Herbert. There we would see most of the Albanian personalities, headed by Isa Boletini, his most beloved man. Herbert was so important that the pro-Ottomans accused him that he, together with Kemal Ataturk, was boiling the soup of anti-Ottoman and pro-Turkish death, as seen in the posted cartoon. But for the important people, who are also deserving, there is less popularity and no glory. /Telegraph/