The Fate of Empires
by Sir John Glubb
I was originally contacted by Mark Glubb on 25 May 2011 and, after being able to verify that the sender was, indeed, someone by this name (having considered the email as being a possible hoax), I received the following response:
"As I mentioned yesterday I represent the family on copyright issues. Following your email yesterday I consulted with the relevant family members and Sir John's solicitors and no one has any recollection of contact with you. If you have any written evidence of agreement being given to you I would appreciate seeing it.
"Please can I ask you to remove the pamphlet asap. If you are keen to have permission to repost it then please come back to me with a bio on you, who you represent, your interest/motivation in posting the document as well as an idea of what you are trying to achieve. As I mentioned I represent the family on this but have to consult them before any decision is made.
"If you have any lingering doubts as to my authenticity then please contact Cumberland Ellis who were Sir John's lawyers. The relevant partner is Ann Stanyer.
"Mark Glubb"
I must note here that no authority has ever been submitted to me and neither have any contact details been given concerning the Solicitors apart those mentioned above (I don't even know which town they're in - for that matter, even which nation, although I would assume the UK). If anyone wishes to pursue permission to be granted them to publish the work then this is all you have to go on at this present time.
I find that such a vague statement is more obstructive than helpful, something that I pointed out to the author in my email response but no reply has been forthcoming. If I ever do receive more details, they will be published here.
If you wish to contact Mark Glubb for further information or send him any emails or comments, I will no longer be passing on contact details because:
a. Previous correspondants have unanimously informed me that they have never received a reply from him, and,
b. I recently traced Cumberland Ellis asking them for a point of contact to direct further queries about reproduction of the text and I recevived no reply from them save for an acknowledgement of receipt.
Although I obtained permission from what I believed to be the daughter of the late Sir John Glubb back in 2007, it appears that she can no longer recall the contact we had.
Even if she did, however, it seems that permission is granted on the basis of a vote from the surviving members of the Glubb family and so it could have been easily overturned. It also means that in subsequent reconsiderations the page could be removed again when deemed desirable. Or granted permission two months later.
A web site cannot agree to hold a work on this basis and, as I noted in the first posting of Glubb's work, I was temporarily publishing it until a decision could be reached by the Executors. It has now been decided that it is not to be allowed to be read freely by the Universal Internet Community.
I will not be pursuing the matter of seeking further permission to carry the text of 'Fate of Empires' as I firmly believe that a sizeable financial charge will be involved (not to mention the voluminous details that I'm expected to submit 'for scrutiny' - one supplies less information when one applies for a passport!) and this website has always been - and will always be - free to all.
This supposition about financial obligations was also pointed out to Mark Glubb by email and no denial has of yet been forthcoming.
While I recognise the legal right of the Executors of an Estate to refuse permission for a work to be published, I am reminded of a line of literature that runs something like:
'A man doesn't die when they breathe their last, but when the last person on earth says their name.'
As with all authors, that they might have a positive influence on a generation of humans after their death and for their works to be made available is what each one of us would desire.
That the text of 'Fate of Empires' is being withheld from the world is, in my opinion, a sentence of death on the late Sir John Glubb, a gagging of his inspirational and insightful voice to a world that needs to hear the message that was so clearly spoken through him.
As no projected date for rerelease has been given me (it was just about to be released in 2007 when I spoke to his daughter and, as it still isn't available, it would appear that it won't be forthcoming at all), I can only imagine that the work will now simply cease to exist and, with time, will have no further positive effect.
If the reader wishes, they can still access my exposition of the Biblical basis of Glubb's magnificent work here but if you search under "Fate of Empires" and Glubb in Google, you will find numerous pdf files of the work that the Executors have not been able to successfully remove.
Lee Smith
May 2011
Updated September 2011 and September 2018
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