مراسلات متنوعة، تقارير، خرائط وغيرها من الأوراق المتعلقة بالشرق الأوسط [و‎‎٦‎١] (٢٢٠/١٢٢)

4.
assistance, and in that event the only queans left to
France for asserting her influence over Syria would he
to occupy the country militarily. But Sir Mark Sykes,
who cannot he suspected of lack of sympathy for French
aspirations, has telegraphed from Syria that the suhsti-
|rv (fca
tut ion of a French Army of Occupationjfwould precipitate a
catastrophe.
IS. It would, in fact, he resisted hy the Syrians hy
force of arms; and while the Armenians are perhaps better
known than the Syrians to the Western civilised world, and
might excite more sympathy as being Christians, it weud-d
never he forgotten that the Syrians, as a predominantly
• nation,
Moslerr^/ would have behind them the sympath y of the
Moslem world.
13. Great Britain, with her millions of Moslem sub
jects, could not afford to he a consentiAg party to an
arrangement under which a Moslem people, liberated hy
British arms from a government which, though oppressive,
was also Moslem, would he abandoned to & foreign conquest
again, and this time hy a Christian Power. Could France
herself, with her Moslem subjects, afford to take such
action? And, apart from self-interest, would she care to
assume this role?
14. JJ.Mesopotamia has been occupied more recently than
Syria hy the British forjes, hut it is already evident that
the Arabs of Mosul desire -union with the rest of Mesopo-
tamia, so that wbiek applies to Syria applies to northern
Mesopotamia also.
15. H.M.G. have of course no intention of attempting
any one-sided alteration of the arrangements contemplated
under the Agreements, and they recognise that in Syria