Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [‎157r] (317/380)

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His Majesty’s Government therefore desire to administer Mesopotamia for an
'-v indefinite period as mandatories of the Arabs, which may be done in several different
ways:—
(a.) As mandatories of the local population (a method which might involve the
rather objectionable sham of a titular local sovereign).
(b.) As mandatories of the head of an Arab Federation, if such were to be formed
(a method which would avoid the embarrassments of (a), since the head of
the Federation would presumably be the local sovereign of the Hejaz, and
would not he seated in the administered provinces).
(c.) A possible compromise between the above alternatives would be the appoint
ment of one of King Husein’s sons as local ruler of Mesopotamia, with
British administrative assistance. It is understood that Sherif Abdullah
may be a candidate for this office.
4. Kurdistan (within the boundaries specified above in Part One, III, 4).
The Power paramount in this country will command the strategic approaches to
Mesopotamia and control the water supply of the eastern affluents of the Tigris, on
which the irrigation of Mesopotamia largely depends. It is therefore essential that the
paramount Power in Kurdistan and Mesopotamia should be the same ; in other words,
that Great Britain should have an exclusive position in Kurdistan as opposed to any
other outside Power.
At the same time, the arguments against annexation apply even more strongly to Kurdistan than
to Mesopotamia. It is desirable that the county should form an independent confederation of tribes
and towns, and that His Majesty’s Government should assume functions intermediate between the
administrative assistance, amounting to direct responsibility for the conduct of government, which they
intend to undertake in Mesopotamia, and the mere control of external relations, to which they propose
to limit themselves in the case of the independent rulers of the Arabian Peninsula. In the hills
British control should be exerted with the least direct intervention possible. In the lowlands
bordering on Mesopotamia, where there are important oil-fields and other natural resources, it may
have to approximate to the Mesopotamian pattern.
The Nestorian settlements in the upper valley of the Greater Zab, where the
Kurds, under Turkish instigation, have worked havoc during the war, should
be formed into an autonomous enclave An area of land belonging to one country and entirely surrounded by land of just one other country. , under the Government of the Nestorian
Prince-Patriarch, with a constitution modelled on that of the Lebanon—the necessary
outside assistance to be given by Great Britain.
5. Syria (including parts of Jezireh not assigned to Mesopotamia).
His Majesty’s Government have less direct political interest in Syria than in any
other of the Arab countries. So far as its internal affairs are concerned, they merely
desire that it shall be independent under an effective Government friendly to the
British Empire. But the inhabitants of the Lebanon vilayet, who as Ottoman subjects
enjoyed administrative autonomy under guarantee of the Powers, ought not to be
forced into any relation with the rest of Syria of which they do not approve.
Syria is more capable than other Arab countries of providing such a Government
for itself on European lines. But if foreign assistance is needed in the internal
administration (and it will in any case be needed to a lesser degree and for a shorter-
time than in Mesopotamia), His Majesty’s Government are content, as in the case of
Armenia, to see this assistance given by a friendly Power on the invitation of the
native inhabitants. This disinterestedness in the internal affairs of Syria, however,
does not hold if the conduct of them is found to affect prejudicially the relations
between Syria and other Arab countries in which Great Britain is interested—
particularly Mesopotamia, the Buweilah-Anazeh country (through which a British
railway from Haifa to Irak would run), and the Hejaz :— •
• (a.) Economic relations: Alexandretta is the natural Mediterranean port for
f Jezireh, and Tripoli might become so for Irak, while Damascus is the focus of trade for
a large part of the Buweilah-Anazeh country, Jebel Shammar, and Hejaz. It is a
British desideratum that there should be free transit across Syria between these
ports and centres and their hinterlands.
(6.) Political relations : Syria has an open frontier towards the desert, and is
therefore bound to be involved in the demarcation and allegiance controversies of the
Arabian Peninsula. Whether Syria be self-governing or assisted in her internal
administration by a foreign Power other than Great Britain, it seems important, for
the reasons advanced above in the case of the Hejaz, that the “ trucial ” relations of those
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