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8 The Linguist Vol/54 No/3 2015 www.ciol.org.uk FEATURES workers' organisations, who were generally not bilingual. It was therefore normal for each delegation to rely on individuals to mediate between the less common languages, such as Arabic, and the more habitual languages of diplomacy: French and English. For the Arab delegation in Paris, Lawrence was a critical participant. However, while there may have been a general assumption that his knowledge and skills in working between French, Arabic and English were reasonably sound, he himself noted that he 'could speak Arabic fluently, if badly', 3 and 'that I never settled down to learn one [dialect] properly. Also I learned by ear (not knowing the written language) and therefore incorrectly… In the end I had control of some 12,000 words; a good vocabulary for English, but not enough for Arabic… Faisal called my Arabic "a perpetual adventure".' 4 According to Michael Korda: 'Lawrence's written Arabic was poor, grammatically incorrect and almost childlike. The task of writing such an important speech was well beyond his linguistic capabilities.' 5 Ali Allawi has pointed to deficiencies in meetings Faisal had with the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, and with the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann. 'The gaps between the two reports of this meeting are too wide to explain in any other way than as translation deficiencies, deliberate or otherwise, on the part of Lawrence… Both Faisal and Balfour were, of course, relying on the veracity and accuracy of Lawrence's translation.' 6 As a side issue, it is worth noting that members of the Arab delegation were also critical of the interpreting and translating skills of Ibn Ghabrit, a Moroccan interpreter employed by the French government. Poor capabilities or politic? There are other similar citations, so a key task is to unpick whether Lawrence's apparent mis-interpretations and mis-translations were a result of political chicanery or linguistic incompetence. Throughout his time as adviser to Faisal and the Arab delegation, Lawrence had to straddle the interests of his British and Arab masters. This was not an easy task for a serving British Army officer whose mission to the Arabs under Faisal was a principal element in the British strategy of undermining the Ottomans in Arabia, Syria and Palestine. Many of Lawrence's activities were as part of the offensive to secure the Near and Middle East for the British Empire. Indeed, when Lawrence was at the Peace Conference, he was a member of the British, not the Arab, delegation and struggled immensely with the dichotomy of this role. Most biographies of Lawrence and general accounts of the Paris conference note the role he played in the presentation of Arab issues to the conference as a whole, to the Council of Ten, to the Big Four (the leaders of the USA, France, Italy and Britain) and to the wider public. With Prince Faisal and a few members of other delegations he was a notable figure. His dichotomous role can be seen in his dress: British Army uniform with an Arab headdress. In the run-up to the conference and during its proceedings, Lawrence had become fully aware of the conflicting political promises that had been made in relation to the possible post-Ottoman settlements in the region. The most famous of these are the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Hussein-McMahon correspondence and the Balfour Declaration. Despite the efforts of Faisal (and Lawrence) to establish Arab kingdoms, there were larger issues at stake: the French position in the Levant, the security of the British Empire and the route to India; President Woodrow Wilson's original 14 Points; the ideas of national self-determination; and the promise of 'a national home for the Jewish people'. Within this broad context, it is interesting to examine the linguistic role that Lawrence played. He was thought to be a key figure in the mediation between Arabs, British and French, and sought to carry this out to the best of his ability. At the Council of Ten ARABIAN JOURNEYS T E Lawrence (from top) in 1919; with British archeologist Leonard Woolley (l) at an excavation site in Carchemish, Syria, c.1912; and in 1920 with Emir Abdullah, Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond, High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel and others in Jerusalem 'Lawrence's written Arabic was poor, grammatically incorrect and almost childlike'