Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [‎3v] (8/380)

(i
For instance, a letter written to him by his son Sherit All on the -Gth May, 1916,
on the eve of the revolt, and mostly occupied with military details, cone no es . fl
“ Our Lord will not, we hope,
regions’’ (Part II, p. 41).
forget
Alexandretta, Beirout, and those
Again, Shei if Abdullah remarked to Colonel Wilson at Jeddah on the 1st November
1916, 7 d propos of his father’s assumption of the title of “ King ol^ the Arabs, that
“ the boundaries of his kingdom were settled previous to the revolt a misstatement
of the facts, unless it was intended, as it certainly was not, as an acceptance ot the
boundaries His Majesty’s Government had consented to. .
On the 29th July, 1917, King Husein expressed his views on the boundary
question to Captain Lawrence :— s
“ The main points were that he had altogether refused to permit any tiench
annexation of Beirout and the Lebanon. ‘They are Arab countries, hut 1 will
neither take them myself nor permit anyone else to take them. 1 hey have
deserved independence and it is my duty to see they get it.
“ He said that he refused a detailed discussion ot boundaries on the grounds
that hostilities between Turkey and the Allies still continue and all decisions taken
now would necessarily have to be modified in accordance with the actual results of
military operations, for which he must have an absolutely bee hand. It
advisable we wall pursue the Turks to Constantinople and Erzerum, so why talk
about Beirout, Aleppo, and Hail.’ ”
He revealed the same state of mind in conversations with Colonel Wilson a few
months later. 9
From conversations with him during the second week of January, 1918, Commander
Hogarth gathered that he still expected France and Great Britain to fall out, and
calculated that he would be able to force the hand of the French with our backing. 10
On the 11th February, 1918, Colonel Basset wrote to Sir II. Wingate that “ King
Husein had read into the terms of* His Majesty's Government’s ‘ pledge ’ very wide
territorial boundaries, and professes the most implicit trust in the intention and ability
of Great Britain to redeem the ‘ pledge ’ as he reads it.’’ 11
Relation of Commitments under (iii) to British Desiderata.
The boundaries of Aiab independence to which His Majesty’s Government are
committed by Sir H. McMahon’s second letter to Sherif Husein (24th October, 1915),
exclude (a) the British territory and Protectorate of Aden ; and presumably also (6) the
British Protectorate of Bahrein, since the Sherif’s claims take the “ Indian Ocean ” as
the boundary of the Arabian Peninsula, and make no mention of islands (see first letter
of Julv 1915, quoted above).
On the other hand, they include (c) Akka-Haifa and (d) Basra, though, in the
agreement of the 6th May, 1916, with France, and in correspondence which has passed
at various times between the Foreign Office and the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , it seems to be assumed
that both these places will become British enclaves An area of land belonging to one country and entirely surrounded by land of just one other country. in the independent Arab area,
attached in some formal way (whether by annexation, protectorate, or lease) to the
Bi itish Empire.
Sir Mark Sykes reported that, in his conversations with Faroki early in November
1915, the latter stated that “ the Arabs would agree to Basra town and all cultivated
lands to the south being British territory.” 12 But there is no other record of such a
concession on his part or on the part of any other representative of the Arab nationalist
organisations in Turkey. And King Husein has never mentioned the possibility of this,
nor have His Majesty’s Government mentioned it in their correspondence with him. 13
Again, tht right of transporting British troops, in peace or war, along a British-
owned railway from Akka-Haifa to Irak and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. has only been agreed to
by France, Italy, and Russia, but has never been either demanded or consented to in
any negotiations between His Majesty’s Government and the Arabs themselves.
In these cases, then, the relation between British commitments and desiderata
remains unsettled.
As regards the nature of the Arab independence to which His JMajesty’s Govern
ment have committed themselves within the boundaries specified in Sir H. McMahon’s
letter of the 24th October, 1915, that is limited by reservations under (iv.) Foreign
-222016/16. 8 174074/17. 9 228069/17. i° 25577/18. 11 42105/18.
12 p. 105 ; also 23579/16. 13 See pp. 4-5 of this Memoraudura.