Coll 6/43 'Pan Arab Congress 1933. Attitude of H.M.G. to a Pan Arab Movement' [‎153v] (307/1144)

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terrible persecution which the Jews are suffering in Germany, Italy and
occupied Europe naturally evokes sympathy for Jews generally and any
body who writes or speaks against Zionism is in danger of being regarded as
condoning these persecutions.
Some time ago there was an agitation by the Zionists to create a Jewish
army in Palestine and elsewhere to fight against the Axis. The British
Government refused to be persuaded. But taking advantage by the present^^
disclosures of Jewish massacres in Poland and Germany, the Zionists are agar^^^
pressing for a Jewish army and have succeeded in enlisting very strong support
for it in the United States.
A Jewish army unconnected with Palestine is no concern of the Ambs in
Palestine or of the Arab States. But will the Zionists be content with a Jewish
army divorced from the Jewish National Home or Zion (Palestine) ? If there
is any intention of recruiting such an army in Palestine or using it in Palestine
or neighbouring Arab countries, the Arabs are bound to consider that the intention
is to force the Allied Nations to accept the Zionist demand for a Jewish State,
and that this army’s ultimate purpose will be to fight the Arabs for the possession
of Palestine. As you know, some Jews are boasting that already in Palestine
they have the nucleus of an army with stores of rifles, machine guns and grenades.
I am inclined to disbelieve this, but if such claims continue to be made they will
cause further alarm to the Arabs there.
Hr. Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader, in an article in Foreign Affairs,
an American quarterly, for January 1942, again urges the creating of a Jewish
State in Palestine, and writes as if. it is bound to be established after this war.
From 1919 to 1922 he expressed the same views ; then, when he realised the strength
of Arab opposition to these claims, he modified them. Now he lias revived them.
I feel that if the United Nations made a definite pronouncement now to the effect
that they will not support the creating of a Jewish State in Palestine, but adhere
to the policy laid down in the White Paper of 1939, the Zionists would make
protests, of course, but would accept the decision as final. They believe that it
is possible, in the course of a great struggle such as the present war, to exact
promises which would not be made in time of peace. So their extreme claims
should be refused categorically now. At the same time, if you agree with my
suggestion, it would be possible for the United Nations to guarantee the future
of the Jewish National Home as it exists at present in Palestine with all the
possibilities of its normal semi-autonomous development within the fabric of a
greater Syria and an Arab League.
I invite your consideration of these matters as I am of opinion that, unless
both the Zionists and their British and American sympathisers cease their
propaganda during the war, the Arabs will start their owm propaganda and that
the Axis Powers will seize the opportunity, so presented, to create bad blood
between Great Britain and the Arabs of the Near and Middle East.
Yours sincerely,
NOURY SAID.
A j''
Sub-enclosure.
Note on the A rab Cause, with Suggestion for the Solution of its Problem.
THE Arab peoples can be divided into two main groups : (1) those living in
Africa, and (2) those living in Syria, in Palestine, in Iraq and in the Arabian
peninsula.
Although in the second group the Arabs of the Arabian peninsula can be
generally distinguished from those of Syria, Iraq, Palestine and 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 , yet
linguistically, culturally, economically, the Arabs of those former Ottoman
provinces are one people. In spite of the fact that during the past twenty years
they have been divided into several different States and that diverse laws have
been introduced into these States, yet, owing to the improvement in communica
tions and education, they are culturally as close together as they have been for
centuries. (This sameness particularly applies to the Ottoman territories lying
on the south-eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Syria formed one compact Arab
area, of which Palestine, the Lebanon and 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 were parts not distinguish
able from each other nor from the present truncated State of Syria.) These areas,
including Iraq, were all part of the territories of the Ottoman Empire, no inter
national botmdaries divhteflU&Uem, the form of administration was the same, and
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