Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [‎158r] (319/380)

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dispensed with, but this would no longer be the case if the area of Palestine were
^extended to the east and south.
This raises the question of the future frontier between Palestine and Egypt. On
the one hand, it seems desirable that all cultivated or cultivable land on the southern
borders of Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Gaza, Rafa, and Beersheba, should go to
Palestine. But, on the other hand, it would be preferable, for the reasons suggested
above, that the Palestinian State should not have jurisdiction over Bedouin tribes.
The tribes south of the Rafa-Beersheba line and west of the Wady Arabah go naturally
with those of the Sinai Peninsula, and the pre-war frontier between Turkey and Egypt,
which separated them, was a quite arbitrary line.
It might be desirable, therefore, to attach this triangle of formerly Turkish
territory to Egypt. But the consent of the inhabitants would have first to be
manifested in some clear form, in order to preclude any possibility of misinterpretat on
For, since Egypt is a British Protectorate, the attachment of these tribes to Egypt
might otherwise be represented as an annexation of free Arabs to the British Empire.
IV.— Summary.
(i.) European Turkey and Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. : Sovereign independence (the balance of
advantage, as regards Constantinople, remaining in doubt).
(ii.) Black Sea Straits : Effective international control.
(hi.) Dodekannese: Friendly settlement between Italy and Greece.
(iv.) Cyprus : A free hand tor ourselves.
(v.) Armenia: Independence, with equal rights for all nationalities, and with
assistance of an outside Power for a term of years.
(vi.) Arab Countries in General: Maintenance of existing British possessions,
protectorates, and treaties ; widest local independence compytible' with this ;
widest extension of British trucial system to independent Arab States;
least possible interference of outside Powers in local internal administration,
(vii.) Arab Federation: Desirable, but without prejudice to (vi).
i (viii.) Caliphate: To be settled by the Moslems themselves.
(ix.) Arabian Peninsula, excluding Hejaz: British trucial treaties with all
independent States.
(x.) Hejaz: Independence; British trucial treaty to cover all foreign relations
except those involved in the pilgrimage.
(xi.) Mesopotamia: Independence, with British administrative assistance (subject to
no limitations of period or function).
(xii.) Kurdistan : Same desiderata as in Mesopotamia.
(xiii.) Syria : Independence, with outside administrative assistance if necessary ; free
transit for trade between Syrian ports and hinterland; independent
Peninsula rulers whose spheres border on Syria, to have trucial treaties
with Great Britain.
(xiv.) Palestine: Independence; administrative assistance to be either American or
preferably British ; free transit for trade between Palestinian ports and
hinterland ; British trucial treaty only in case Palestine includes country
east of Jordan.