Page Eight

THE JEWISH NEWS

Priday, Apr! 7, • P944 _

'

rde Charles Wingate

THE LAWRENCE OF JUDEA

The man who prepared the campaign for the recapture of Burma
once lectured Palestine authorities on Zionist policy . . . Was the
leader of British Jewish military group that put an end to Arab riot-
ing ... His death is plane crash in Burma March 24 was a distinct
loss to United Nations . . Mrs. Wingate and her mother are de-
voted Zionists.

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

shal Wavell saw in
Wingate a streak
of genius and the
makings of a great
leader. This flight
over Burma was
the beginning of an
assignment which
would show deci-
sively which of
them was right."

Brigadier Orde Charles Wingate, the man who put an • end to
Arab rioting in Palestine and later led the expedition into
Japanese-occupied Burma, is shown here with the magnificent
beard he grew during his three months' expedition in the jungle.

OF THE most fas-
O NE
cinating stories of the

war is yet to be told. Part of it is still
a military 'secret, because it deals with
the great pioneering job that was
done by the Chindits who explored
the Burma territory, behind the Jap-
anese lines, in preparation for the in-
vasion and recapture of Burma. But a
major portion of the story is now a
matter of general knowledge, as a
result of the publication of "Wingate's
Raiders," the thrilling story written
by a very able reporter, Charles J.
Rolo, and published by the Viking
Press.

It is the story of Brigadier—Major
General at the time of his accidental
death March 24—Orde Charles • Win-
gate and his brave fellow-warriors
whom he called the "Chindits" — a
name adopted after the Chinthey, the
mythological beast, half lion, half
griffin, statues of which stand guard
over Burmese pagodas to ward off
evil spirits.

Latest Occurrences

"Wingate's Raiders" is a story which
assumes the significance of a war
textbook because of the latest oc-
currences in Burma and in India. An
important war front exists in the ter-
ritory that was invaded at great risk
by these men, and the successes ex-
pected for the United Nations will be
the results of the exploratory work
of Wingate's Raiders. .

It is a thrilling tale of heroism, of
great devotion, but more especially of
leadership Which is unparalleled in
the Allied experiences in the • present
war.

Ambush fighting against the J:ap-.
anese in this area marked Wingate's
invasion of territory which was sup-
posed to have been held by the great-
est jungle fighters in the world. But
the jungle methods adopted by Win-
gate outsmarted the Japanese. As a
result of these military experiments,
Wingate, revered by many as a
prophet, was spoken of as a man .
with the endurance of a mule and as
one who acquired the- cunning of a
hunted fox.

Mr. Rolo's story- gives credence to
such beliefs. The record contained in
his book is based on actual experi-
ences related to him by those who
were on this expedition and who sur-
vived the sufferings Wingate's men
endured in Burma.

Brilliant Results

Brig. Gen. Horace S. Sewell of the
Seventh Hussars, who fought with
Alexander during the retreat from
Rangoon to the borders of Assam, in
a foreword to "Wingate's Raiders,"
calls the Wingate campaign "unique
in the annals of warfare." We are
told by Mr. Rolo:,
"Wingate's daring conception of
strategy and tactics applied on the
battlefield has so far produced bril-
liant results. He had won the D.S.O.
in 1938 for clearing Palestine of ter-
rorists and had been decorated again
for his fabulous guerilla exploits in
Ethoopia. Brass hats, enraged by Win-
gate's novel ideas, predicted that this
young puppy would come to a bad
end. Men of the stamp of Field Mar-

J.

It is not neces-
sary to wait for
history to give an
opinion. The
achieve ments of
Wingate's men
who had trekked
thro"ugh great
danger already has
ruled in favor of
the brilliant sol-
dier and scholar.

Hailing from a dynasty of soldiers
and ministers, we are told about
Wingate that the sword, the Bible and
the "flair for strange . races" are part
of his heritage. There are branches of
the family in this country and one,
Timothy Wingate, was a colonel in
the Revolutionary War and served in
Washington's cabinet.

Part of His Heritage

"All his life," Mr. Rolo writes,
"faith has meant a great deal to Win-
gate—faith in a Higher Providence,
in his own destiny and in the cause
he is fighting for. He has led Palestine
Jews, Sudanese, Ethiopian tribesmen,
Indians, Gurkhas, Burmese, Austra-
lians, New Zealanders, Scotsmen,
Irishmen and Englishmen, and never
has failed to impart to them his own
faith in - the cause. His personal mag-
netism penetrates barriers of lan-
guage, color, race and creed."
The story. of Wingate's experiences
in, Palestine some day should be in-
co=:. porated in another volume. Mr.
Rolo writes that "when serving in
Palestine, he (Wingate) spent his
leave in a Jewish settlement and
learned to speak, read and write He,'
brew fluently. In the Sudan he mas-
tered several Arabic dialects."

Jeopardized His Career

Most important of all in connection
with his Palestinian experiences is
the following excerpts from Mr. Rolo's
book:

"He -is dedicated to his ideals with
a missionary zeal that is no respecter
of rank or title; his indiscretion is
prodigious. Time and 'again it has
jeopardized his whole career. When
first he arrived in Palestine, he
marched to the authorities and lec-
tured them on policy. This policy, he
vouchsafed tartly, was not his idea
but Jehovah's, and he referred them
to the Old Testament.

"In Khartoum he would stride bel-
ligerently into the officers' mess and
tell the assembled company how to
run the war. He loved to enrage his
more conventional colleagues by pok-
ing fun at their thinly disguised
counterparts-`the military ape.' He is
probably the only British officer in
modern times who has used the an- •
cient prerogative of complaining in
writing to the King about one of his
superior officers.

"The gentleman in question hap-
pened to be a member of the King's
Council summoned to pass judgment
on the case. Only respect for Wingate's
personal integrity and rare qualities
as a soldier saved his career. The
council decided to overlook what
must have seemed a shocking breach
of military tradition.

Called Him Insolent

"Wingate's fixity of purpose has led
to countless clashes with brass hats -
and complacent officials, outraged by --
his forthright methods and ruthless
assaults on red tape. They have called
him insolent, cocksure and overbear-
ing. He takes these charges in his
stride. After provoking the wrath of a
group of higher-ups with his unortho
dox ideas, he once cheerily remarked
to a friend: 'You know, I'm not half
so crazy as people think.'

"It was as a captain in Palestine
in 1938 that Wingate first proved—
under Wavell's eye—his brilliance as
a guerilla leader. Bands of Axis-sub-
sidized Arab maurauders repeatedly
were cutting the Haifa-Mosul oil pipe-
line and terrorizing the local Jewish
population. The conventional methods
for dealing with a situation of this
kind had failed miserably. Wingate
pleaded for and was granted a free
hand to restore order.

"He organized and led. night patrols,
totaling only a few hundred men—
half of them British, half of them
Palestinian Jews . who knew every
foot of the terrain-Land outdid the
Arabs at their own game: sniping,
ambush and guerilla warfare. He built
up an ubiquitous intelligence system,
and always knew exactly when and
where the Arabs would strike. Time
and again he caught them creeping
toward the pipeline or ambushed
them smuggling arms and ammuni-
tion through the barbed-wire frontier
between Syria and Palestine.

`Lawrence of Judea '

"Wingate soon became something of
a legend in Palestine, and at dinner
parties stories were current of how,
single-handed, he had talked or
trapped armed bands into surrender.
He became known as 'Lawrence of
Judea.' Later his exploits were to win
him the titles 'Lawrence of Ethiopia'
and 'Lawrence of Burma'."

For the first and only time 'since
Pierre Van Paassen's "The Forgotten
Ally" do we find, in Mr. Rolo's "Win-
gate's Raiders," fair reference to the
destructive anti-Jewish work that
was done by the "bands of Axis-sub-
sidized Arab maurauders." If only the
complete story were generally known!
The Zionist case would be so much
easier to win and to bring to realiza-
tion!
* * *
That part of the Wingate story re-
lating to Palestine, which is not to be
found in Mr. Rolo's story, should be
made known in justice to this brave
warrior as an expression of apprecia-
tion for this Christian pro-Zionist's
activities.

He came to Palestine in 1937 when
the Arab rioters were causing the
greatest amount of damage to inno 7
cent and peace-loving Jewish settlers.
As Mr. Rolo has indicated, the Arab
terror was Axis-inspired. Neverthe-
less, the British Colonial officials
were indifferent to what was happen-
ing and they followed a vacillating
policy of weakness in dealing with
the gangsters.

Selected Military Force

Wingate, who had come to Palestine
steeped in knowledge of the Bible and
with an intense appreciation of the
pioneering work of the Jews, soon
understood the forces that were be-
hind the . Arab hoodlum element. A
courageous man, he soon received his
superiors' consent to select his own
military force to put an end to the
rioting. He, had learned to admire 'the
bravery of the young Jews in Pales-
tine, and he made use of their knowl-
edge of the land in a campaign he
had. undertaken.

Bible in pocket and revolver in
hand, he accomplished what the Brit-
ish authorities failed to do in Pales-
tine. With his Night Squads, he toured
the country, secured Jewish recruits
and the new comradeship increased
his admiration for Jewish efforts and
his friendship for the national Jewish
effort in Palestine had become pro-
verbial.

When he was sent on another mis-
sion and was taken out of Palestine,
the YishuN,, of Palestine, whose love
for him was deep-rooted, feared that
perhaps his understanding of and 4*
love for Zionism, the Balfour Declara-
tion and the Mandate were too real
to please the anti-Zionist Colonial
officials.
• * *

A Palestinian writer who had heard

Brigadier Wingate deliver an address ,

AO:

in a camp at Ain Harod to the Jews
he had recruited for his dangerous
Night Squads relates—quoting from
memoiy—that this interesting man,
"speaking with intense admiration of
the qualities of the young Jewish
generation," ended his talk with ap-
proximately these words:

"You men only lack the arms to
be the most efficient and devoted
soldiers in the world. I have decided
to enroll you in my squads, to provide
you with these arms, so that together
we shall be able to guard what is
holy to you, and to defeat the dark
forces of reaction. These Night Squads
are newly born; but it may well be
that they will grow in numbers, that
they will swell into a Jewish Pioneer
Force which will one day stand at
the side of Great Britain and her
Allies when the real fight against the
forces of Nazism and Fascism every-
where will begin!"
* * *
On July 9, 1943, the Zionist Record
of Johannesburg, South Africa, quoted
a reader from the Copper Belt in
Northern Rhodesia as follows about
Brigadier Wingate:

"My brother in Palestine had the
honor of being under the command
of this distinguished soldier. The men
idolized him and were ever ready to
follow him on the most dangerous
ventures."

This correspondent recalled a state-
ment by Dr. Chaim Weizmann in-
connection with the demands for a
Jewish Army. Dr. Weizmann had in-
dicated that the scheme, which had
since fallen through, was well
planned. Said the Rhodesian corres-
pondent:

"It is common property that Brig-
adier Wingate was to command the
Jewish Army. His mother-in-law, Mrs.
Moncrieff Paterson, is a." devoted Zion-
ist in England and has often rendered
assistance to the Zionist cause."

Two Women Zionists

This brings us to the women's end
of the story.

Mr. Rolo, in "Wingate's Raiders,"
tells how the beautiful Lana (Lorna)
Elizabeth Moncrieff Paterson met her
future husband when she was 15. He
was 30. She told him outright: "You're
the man I'm going to marry." She
returned to school, went "to Oxford,
but after three months at college de-
cided to be married and became Mrs.
Wingate at 17.

Her mother has addressed many
Zionist and Jewish National Fund
meetings in Scotland and in England.
She helped to organize the Scottish
Union for Justice to the Jews, has
been interested in Zionism for many
years and has visited Palestine sev-
eral times.

Her daughter is following in her
mother's footsteps and has become
one of the leading Christian Zionists
in England. When a writer in a Lon-•
don paper said that Wingate "also has
made an enthusiastic supporter of the
Jewish cause of his wife," Mrs. Win-
gate resented it and said:

"This is not quite true. I have had
the good fortune to feel a deep affec-
tion for Jews and a devotion to their
interests for as long as I can remem-
ber. My three years in Palestine
brought me to the belief that Zionism
is the best way of serving these in-
terests . . . A loyalty which affects
our very nature and way of life must
be assigned to a source in our earliest
consciousness. I can only conclude
that I was born Zionist where some
achieved Zionism and others, through
sad experience, had Zionism thrust
upon them."

Quotes gm Eshkachech'

Recently, the interesting wife of
the interesting Brigadier, had her
name inscribed in the Golden Book
of the Jewish National Fund, in ap-
preciation of the help she had given
in making a success of the J.N.F.
campaign in England. At the function
in her honor she quoted from a letter
she 'had received from her gallant
husband who, referring to Jeruaslem,
used the words "Im Eshkachech . ."
—"If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem .
* * *

It has just been revealed that Win-
gate was among the dignitaries who
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