A PALADIN OF ARABIA
Current Literature
By Major N. N. E. Bray Lieutenant-Colonel Leachman, the subject of this book (Unicorn Press, 12s. 6d.), was one of those men to whom the War gave great opportunity of achievement. He is the last of the group concerned with the Near East to find a biographer, and the work of the author is the more difficult since the recording of what he had done was the task Leachman most disliked. He had, however, before the War accomplished several remarkable journeys and reconnaissances in Arabia, following on routine service in India and participation in the Boer War. Once posted to Mesopotania, his influence with the Arab chieftains was extraordinary, and, apart from the fact that the Arabs themselves admitted that he could surpass them in the accomplishments of which they were most proud, there is little else in the present work to account for this. Colonel Leachman's War service was political rather than mil- itary. It culminated in his appointment to the Governor- ship of Mosul, a post for which by temperament he was little suited. Ill-health compelled him to return to England, but his intimate knowledge of the country made his presence necessary once more during the post-War years. Here, once the new order had been established, would have been an opportunity to continue his Arabian travels ; unfortunately, he was treacherously assassinated in 1920. Major Bray describes this active and adventurous life as well as possible, in view of the shortage of authentic material on which such a biography must necessarily be based.
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