The Truth about Mesopotamia, Palestine & Syria

J. de V. Loder

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032202327
• eBook ISBN: 9781000544411
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

First published in 1923, The Truth about Mesopotamia, Palestine & Syria presents a comprehensive overview of what may be called the Arab or Middle Eastern problem in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Drawing from official publications and first-hand experience in the Middle East, J. de V. Loder discusses themes like the origins of the Arab movement; conditions in the Arab countries under Allied Occupation until the end of 1918; the activities of the Peace Conference and their repercussion in the Arab countries during 1919; Arab nationalism in Syria and Mesopotamia; and the relations between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. With a foreword by Lord Robert Cecil, this book is an important historical document and will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Middle East studies, British foreign policy, and international relations.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I TEXT OF LETTERS, CONFIRMING THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT, EXCHANGED BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND FRENCH GOVERNMENTS (SIR EDWARD GREY AND M. CAMBON) IN MAY 1916.¹

¹ Translated from the French texts reproduced in L'Asie Française and in La Syrie, by G. Sammê.

A. M. Cambon to Sir E. Grey, May 9, 1916

1. France and Great Britain are disposed to recognize and protect an independent Arab State or a Confederation of Arab States in the (A) and (B) zones indicated on the enclosed map, under the suzerainty of an Arab chief. In the (A) zone, France, and in the (B) zone, Great Britain, shall have a priority right on local enterprises and loans. In the (A) zone, France, and in the (B) zone. Great Britain, shall alone supply advisors or foreign officials at the request of the Arab State or Confederation of Arab States.
2. In the blue zone, France, and in the red zone, Great Britain, shall be authorized to establish such direct or indirect administration or such control as they desire and shall judge it expedient to establish after reaching an understanding with the Arab State or Confederation of Arab States.
3. In the brown zone shall be established an international administration whose form shall be decided after consultation with Russia, and subsequently in accord with the other Allies and the representatives of the Sherif of Mecca.
4. There shall be accorded to Great Britain:—
   Firstly, the ports of Haifa and Acre; secondly, the guarantee of a definite quantity of water from the Tigris and the Euphrates in the (A) zone for the (B) zone. His Majesty's Government, on its side, undertakes at no time to enter into negotiations for the cession of Cyprus to a third Power without the previous consent of the French Government.
5. Alexandretta shall be a free port in so far as the commerce of the British Empire is concerned, and there shall not be established any difference of treatment in port dues, nor particular advantages refused to British goods or shipping; there shall be free transit for British goods through Alexandretta and over railways across the blue zone, whether these goods be destined for or come from the red zone, the (A) zone and the (B) zone; and no difference of treatment shall be established (directly or indirectly) at the expense of British goods on any railway whatever, nor likewise at the expense of British goods or ships in all ports serving the zones mentioned.
   Haifa shall be a free port in so far as the commerce of France, its colonies and protectorates, are concerned, and there shall be neither difference of treatment nor advantage in the port dues which might be refused to French goods and shipping. There shall be free transit for French goods through Haifa and over the British railway across the brown zone, whether these goods are destined for or come from the blue zone, the (A) zone or the (B) zone, and there shall be no difference of treatment (direct or indirect) at the expense of French goods and ships in any port whatever serving the zones mentioned.
6. In the (A) zone, the Baghdad Railway shall not be prolonged southwards beyond Mosul, and in the (B) zone northwards beyond Samarra, until a railway has been completed joining Baghdad to Aleppo by the Euphrates Valley, and this only with the agreement of the two Governments.
7. Great Britain shall have the right to construct, administer and be sole proprietor of a railway joining Haifa to the (B) zone. She shall have, moreover, a perpetual right to transport troops, at any time, along this line. It should be understood by the two Governments that this railway is to facilitate the junction of Baghdad with Haifa, and it is further understood that if technical difficulties and the expense incurred for the maintenance of this junction line in the brown zone make its execution impracticable, the French Government shall be disposed to consider the passage of the said line through the polygon Barreis-Keis-Maril-SilbradTel-Hotsada-Mesuire before reaching the (B) zone.
8. For a period of twenty years the Turkish customs tariffs shall remain in force throughout the blue and red zones as well as in the (A) and (B) zones, and no increase in the scale of dues nor change in ad valorem dues in specific dues shall be made except with the consent of the two Powers. There shall be no internal customs between any of the above-mentioned zones. The customs dues leviable on goods destined for the interior shall be exacted at the port of entry and transmitted to the administration of the zone of destination.
9. It shall be understood that the French Government shall not undertake, at any time, any negotiations for the cession of its rights and shall not cede the rights it will possess in the blue zone to any third Power except the Arab State or Confederation of Arab States, without the previous consent of His Majesty's Government, which, on its side, shall give a similar assurance to the French Government in regard to the red zone.
10. The French and British Governments, as protectors of the Arab State, shall agree not to acquire and will not consent to the acquisition by any third Power of territorial possessions in the Arabian peninsula, nor the construction of a naval base in the islands off the east coast of the Red Sea. This shall not, however, prevent such rectification of the frontier of Aden as may be judged necessary as a consequence of the recent Turkish aggression.
11. The negotiations with the Arabs concerning the frontiers of the Arab State or Federation of Arab States shall continue through the same channels as heretofore in the name of the two Powers.
12. It is further understood that measures of control for the importation of arms in Arab territory shall be considered by the two Governments.

B. M. Cambon to Sir E. Grey, May 15, 1916

(In reply to a letter of the same date from Sir E. Grey asking for certain guarantees not mentioned in M. Cambon's letter of May 9th.)

In your communication of even date your Excellency has expressed the desire, before answering my letter of May 9th regarding the creation of an Arab State, to receive an assurance that, in the regions which would become French or in those where French interests would be predominant, the concessions and rights of navigation, together with the rights and privileges of all British religious, scholastic and medical establishments should be maintained. It would be understood, on the other hand, that the same rights would be recognized to France by the King's Government in the sphere devolving to Great Britain.

I have the honour to inform your Excellency that the French Government is ready to sanction the various British concessions, dating with certainty from before the war, in the regions which may be attributed to it or which may depend on its action. As to the religious, scholastic and medical institutions, they would continue to function as in the past, it being at the same time understood that such a reservation does not imply the maintenance of rights of jurisdiction and the capitulations in these territories.

C. Sir E. Grey to M. Cambon, May 16, 1916

(Accepts the text of the agreement contained in M. Cambon's letter of May 9th.)

APPENDIX II (1) NOTE ON THE HISTORY AND AIMS OF ZIONISM.

(By Mr. Leonard Stein.)

The Zionist Movement is, in one sense, as old as the Dispersion. When the last vestiges of the Jewish State were blotted out by Hadrian in the second century, Palestine did not cease to be, in Jewish eyes, the Land of Israel. The ties between Palestine and the Jews were unbroken. The Jews conceived of themselves as a people in exile. But the exile was only an episode. Sooner or later, in God's good time, the exiles would be gathered in and the people restored to its land.

These were the ideas which continued to dominate the Jewish mind until well into the eighteenth century. Hence the repeated, though abortive, attempts at mass immigration into Palestine which were characteristic of the Middle Ages. Hence, too, the steady stream of Jewish pilgrims, and the pious offerings which regularly flowed from the Diaspora into the "Holy Cities." Hence, again, the instant response to the pseudo-Messiahs who appeared at intervals in various parts of the Jewish world. Nor should it be forgotten that the collapse of the Jewish State in Palestine by no means involved the disappearance of the Jews. For four hundred years and more, Palestine continued to be the foremost centre of Jewish thought and learning. Even after the centre of gravity had begun to shift to Babylonia, Palestine became the birthplace of Jewish mysticism, and produced the first of the Jewish liturgical poets. In the fifteenth century Palestine again became the scene of a renaissance which has left an enduring impression on Jewish thought. At the end of the eighteenth century, Jewish life in Palestine was, it is true, at a low ebb, but it had behind it a long and an august tradition.

Thus Palestine never ceased to be a magic name, and the hopes and memories which centred round it came to be woven into the very texture of Jewish life. This background is indispensable, if the Jewish connection with Palestine is to be understood. What the Jews have felt and still feel for Palestine is not merely a sentimental attachment to the cradle of their race and religion; it is a living emotion which is of the essence of their corporate being.

In the new world which emerged from the convulsions of the French Revolution the Jews began to see themselves in a different light. In the West they acquired the ordinary rights of citizenship, and began to be absorbed into the structure of the societies in which they lived. In Eastern Europe they continued to be subject to grave disabilities; but here, too, though the old world tradition was much more powerful, the ideas on which Jewry had fed in the Middle Ages were no longer adequate. Thus the conceptions of the Exile and the Redemption could no longer be taken literal...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• PREFACE Page
• FOREWORD BY LORD ROBERT CECIL Page
• Contents Page
• I. THE ARABS AND THE WAR
• II. CONDITIONS IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES UNDER ALLIED OCCUPATION UNTIL THE END OF 1918
• III. THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE AND THEIR REPERCUSSION IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES DURING 1919
• IV. ARAB NATIONALISM AND THE FRENCH IN SYRIA
• V. ARAB NATIONALISM AND THE BRITISH IN MESOPOTAMIA
• VI. BRITISH, ARABS AND JEWS IN PALESTINE
• VII. MANDATES, TREATIES AND CONCLUSIONS
• APPENDICES
• INDEX