Coll 6/43 'Pan Arab Congress 1933. Attitude of H.M.G. to a Pan Arab Movement' [‎115r] (230/1144)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (General).
CONFIDENTIAL.
j*
6W7/M/65]
ctober 23, v.iii.
d Octdjber.)
Section 1.
Copy No. J ()
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Mr. Shone to Mr. Eden. — {Re/feivi
(No. 11/9.) , CairoVlOth October, 1944.
’ WITH reference to my telegram No. 199 7 of the 8th October I have the
honour to transmit herewith the * rench version ot the Erotocol of the 1 repaia iy
Committee for the Arab Congress published in the Journal d Egypte ot the
Hth C^ct/oloor 1044
2. The Protocol was so fully analysed in the telegram above referred to that
1 need not dwell on the details in this despatch.
3. It is evident that the resolutions adopted by the Preparatory Committee
are of potential importance. Divisions and jealousies as well as the instability
of the Arab States concerned may militate against effective implementation ot
the resolutions, but, nevertheless, it is clear that discussions which ha\e been
taking place for over a year between the Arab States have cleared the ground
of impracticable ideas such as those oi immediate administrative unions oi
federations and led the Arab States in the more practical direction ol Aia >
co-operation, political as well as economic, cultural and social. Moreover, a
machinery has actually been proposed for giving permanency and method to this
political co-operation, i.e., the Council of the League of Arab States, whose main
purposes will be to consolidate relations between the Arab States and to safe
guard their independence and sovereignty against aggression. It will be noted
that the committee expressed the hope that this first step will lead to other
results, especially in connexion with any post-war institution for uniting States
generally. This is perhaps intended as a sop to the Syrians and Iraqis, who
hanker after a Greater Syria or Arab Federation.
4. The particular resolution regarding the independence of the Lebanon
within its present frontiers appears to have been due to conflict which arose
during the proceedings between the Lebanese and Syrian delegations. The only
reports which I have hitherto received of this incident come from an agent
attached to the Palace and from Hassanein Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , both naturally prejudiced
against Nahas Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. . According to their accounts, Nahas Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , in full meeting,
suggested to the delegates that they should produce the proces-verbanx of their
separate meetings with him previously. He added that, if any of them wished
to suppress any part of their proces-verbaux, they were at liberty to do so.
The Lebanese and Iraqi delegates said that they had nothing to hide and
produced their proces-verbaux. Saadallah Jabri Bey, Syrian Prime Minister
and head of the Syrian delegation, looked very embarrassed, but finally said that
he was a frank man and would not conceal anything that he had said. He then
produced his proces-verbal, which contained passages against the Maronites
and the Jews and suggesting a Greater Syria and the reduction of the Greater
Lebanon to its old Little Lebanon frontiers.
5. Musa Mubarek, head of the Cabinet of the Lebanese President and one
of the Lebanese delegates, said that he was the representative of the head of the
Lebanese State, who was a Maronite, and that he must protest against this
attack on the Maronites. The Lebanese delegates also protested against the
proposal to reduce them to their pre-1920 frontiers. A reconciliation was
patched up thanks to the intervention of Riad al Sulh, the Lebanese Prime
Minister.
6. Subsequently King Farouk received the heads of the Syrian and
Lebanese delegations as well as the head of the Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan delegation with
a view apparently to smoothing over matters between the Syrians and Lebanese.
As the head of the Lebanese delegation is a Muslim this step of the Palace
seems to have been rather clumsy, for obviously the people who wanted quietening
down were the Christian members of the Lebanese delegation. Incidentally,
Nahas Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , according to Amin Osman Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , strongly objected on con
stitutional grounds to the Monarch’s receiving, and discussing political matters
with, Arab delegates without his Minister for Foreign Affairs being present.
7. The story recorded above may be too highly coloured but its main
features were confirmed by the Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan Prime Minister in conversation
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