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Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [50r] (103/380)
The record is made up of 1 file (187 folios). It was created in 1 Jul 1916-7 Dec 1918. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: 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. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
m
viz. the grant of arms and subsidies to the Sovereign.
Vie give both to the Amir of Afghanistan, who is a far
more independent sovereign than the King of the Hejaz
is likely, for many a long day, to be.
(b) Nothing to my mind is more certain than that,
when the war is over, whether the King of the Hejaz
expands into the head of a great Arab Confederacy, or,
as is more likely, remains the Sovereign of a contracted
area, he will require from Great Britain - just as the
Amir of Afghanistan has done for half a century -
a subsidy and arms for many years to come; and further
that we shall have to supply them if we are to save him
from extinction.
Vtoy then should we propose unasked to debar our
selves from doing that which we shall almost certainly
be compelled to do, and place ourselves in a position
where we cannot subsidise or support the King in the
future, without asking the consent of the French?
Such action, I maintain, has nothing to do with
internal administration or internal independence. It
will flow from the superior political interest of Great
Britain in Arabia as a whole. In the succeeding
sentences of the draft, we proceed to reassert and to
vindicate the latter. Why then exclude the first and
most inevitable illustration of its existence?
The analogy of Afghanistan seems to me to oe the
one that we ought to bear in mind. The Amir is in
closer political relations with ourselves than with any
other Power; he accepts our money; he to a large extent
looks to us for advice. But his internal independence
is quite unqualified; and the Russians, who after all
are contiguous to his dominions, which the French are
not to the Hejaz, occupy in relation to him much the
sort
About this item
- Content
This file contains correspondence, memoranda, maps, manuscript notes, and other papers relating to the political and territorial settlement of parts of the Middle East following the First World War. Many of the papers were collected for the attention of the Middle East Committee (later named the Eastern Committee, following the mergence of the Foreign Office's Russia Committee and the interdepartmental Persia Committee) of the War Cabinet. Contributors include officials from the War Office, Foreign Office, Admiralty, and 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. , as well as indivduals such as Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence. Correspondence comes from representatives of the French and Italian governments as well as British officials in Cairo and other parts of the Middle East.
The papers deal with plans for the region presuming and following an Allied victory in the First World War and take into consideration the imperial ambitions of the victorious European Powers (France, Italy, Russia, Britain, and the United States) and the multitudinous commitments made by the British to various groups. The plans are based on evolving agreements rooted in the Sykes-Picot, or Asia Minor, Agreement between the British and French of 1916. Regions under consideration include the Hejaz (sometimes written Hedjaz), Syria, Northern Iraq, Southern Iraq, Palestine, Armenia, Turkey, the Idrisi state, Yemen, Persia, and Afghanistan. Various matters are covered in the file, but particular focus is given to plans for the Sherifian family of the Hejaz, led by King Husein [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī], which impacted upon policy in Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and the Arabian Peninsula. Other matters include the situation between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, wartime commitments to ruling shaikhs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , the French position in the region, and desiderata of the Government of India for any peace settlement.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (187 folios)
- Arrangement
The file is arranged in chronological order from the front to the back.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front first page with 1, and terminates at the inside back last page with 187; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [50r] (103/380), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/277, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100079857498.0x000068> [accessed 16 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F112/277
- Title
- Papers on British policy and the Arab movement
- Pages
- 1ar:1av, 1r:14r, 14r:14v, 14v, 22r:59v, 62r:98r, 99v:120v, 125r:133v, 136r:165r, 166r:167r, 167av, 168r:173r, 175r:176v, 178r:187v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence