Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [‎157v] (318/380)

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independent Peninsula rulers whose spheres border upon Syria should be so arrange as
to preclude the possibility of a Power which gave administrative assistance to Syria
interfering in purely Peninsula affairs.
The interaction of tribal politics throughout the Arab countries has been put forcibly in a memo
randum of the 20th January, 1917, by Sir Arthur Hirtzel:—*
“ No part of Arabia can be completely indifferent to Great Britain, which is the only Power that
at present has a foothold in the country. Our hold is limited to a narrow fringe along the coast . . . ,
its security depends ultimately upon the tranquillity of the interior. Since we are unable to intervene
in or control the interior, it is essential to exclude all possible seeds of disturbance.
“ Arabia is not a State in any effective sense, but a fortuitous concourse of tribes • • • • un ^ r
chiefs, the limits of whose sway are determined not by frontiers, but by the tribes which they oi e
time being control. Their 'politics are closely interwoven, and a quarrel may run right awo&s u
continent!’
These considerations were embodied in a memorandum of the 29th August, 1917, on Fiench and
British interests in the Arabian Peninsula by Lord It. Cecil :—f
“ There exists no more fruitful source of trouble in these semi-civilised countries than a condition
of things in which tribal combinations can entertain the hope of enlisting one European Power against
another # . ,
“ His Majesty’s Government are convinced that the avoidance of internal strife in Arabia can o n jy
be secured through the retention by Great Britain of the iutiuence which this country has so long held
throughout the Peninsula as the European Power most closely concerned with the internal peace and
external politics of Arabia.”
These principles clearly apply to Syria, in so far as her open frontier on the east and south-east
makes her a party to the tribal politics of the Peninsula ; and this is the point at which the question
of French administration in Syria touches vital British interests.
6. Palestine (including Safed and Hebron, but excluding Akaba and the country east
of Jordan).
British desiderata may be analysed as follows:—
(a.) Strategic : Palestine adjoins the Sinai Peninsula, the Suez Canal, and Akaba,
and a British railway from Akka-Haifa to Irak would traverse Palestine in its first
section. It is therefore a British desideratum that if the effective government of Palestine
demands the intervention of a single outside Power in its administration, that Power
should be either Great Britain or, failing that, the United States. An international
administration would not, perhaps, have the same drawbacks as a single foreign (even
though friendly) administering Power, but it may be doubted whether it would
secure the political desiderata set out below.
(b.) Political: In view of the interests, often conflicting, of several international
religious communities in Palestinian holy places, it is a British desideratum that there
should be an administration capable of conciliating these interests, and this for two
reasons : (l) To ensure orderly government in a country where disorder would react
upon neighbouring countries in which Great Britain is interested ; and (2) to prevent
the possibility of any of the international bodies interested in Palestine feeling resent
ment against Great Britain as a party to an arrangement there which they might
» consider unfair to themselves.
In particular, His Majesty’s Government desire to insure reasonable facilities in
Palestine for Jewish colonisation, without giving Arab or general Moslem opinion an
opportunity for considering that Great Britain has been instrumental in handing over
free Arab or Moslem soil to aliens.
From this point of view it is desirable that Palestine, whatever its administration
and whatever the facilities granted to non-Arab elements in its population, should
nominally be included in an Arab Confederation; so that in Palestine, as well as in
Mesopotamia, the establishment of such a confederation is from one point of view a
British interest.
(c.) Economic : It is a British desideratum that there should be free transit across
Palestine between Akka-Haifa and the Anazeh country, the Hejaz, Jebel Shammar, and
Irak.
(d.) Trucial: In this one respect British desiderata in Palestine are less exacting
than in Syria. The frontiers of Palestine specified above would lie entirely in settled
territory, and a Palestinian Government would not therefore be involved in perpetual
demarcation and allegiance disputes with its neighbours. A trucial treaty with Great
Britain for the settlement of disputes with adjoining Arab States might therefore be
* Foreign Office/132784/93808/1917.
| Foreign 012106/165801/93808/1917.