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‘Keeping Better Educated Moslems Busy’: Sir Reginald Wingate and the Origins of the Husayn-McMahon Correspondence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. H. Lieshout
R. H. Lieshout
Affiliation:
Twente University of Technology
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Type
Communications
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , June 1984 , pp. 453 - 463
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 See, for example, memo Clerk, 11 Oct. 1914, FO 371/2142/58203, and tel. Mallet to Grey, no. 692, 4 Sept. 1914, FO 371/2139/46520.

2 See, for example, minute Grey, not dated, on Hirtzel to Clerk, 31 Aug. 1914, FO 371/2139/44923, and minute Clerk, 5 Sept. 1914, on tel. Mallet to Grey, no. 692, FO 371/2139/46520.

3 See, for example, minutes conference I.O., F.O. and Admiralty, 26 Sept. 1914, FO 371/2139/53671, tel. Hardinge to Crewe, private, 31 Aug. 1914, FO 371/2139/44923, tel. Hardinge to Crewe, private, 19 Sept. 1914, FO 371/2143/52310, and tel. Hardinge to Crewe, private, 7 Oct. 1914, Cab 21/70. These first paragraphs are based on chapter 3 of my Without making elaborate calculations for the future: the Arab question as an organizational problem, 1914–1919 (in preparation).

4 Clerk's minute of an interdepartmental meeting, 16 Nov. 1914, FO 371/2139/71465.

5 Tel. viceroy to S.S.I., 7 Jan. 1915, FO 371/2478/3573.

6 Tel. viceroy to S.S.I., 7 Jan. 1915, ibid.

7 Minute Oliphant, 11 Jan. 1915, and tel. Grey to McMahon, no. 20, 12 Jan. 1915, FO 37I/2478/3573.

8 Wingate to Clayton, very private, 14 Jan. 1915, university library Durham, Clayton papers, box 469/8.

9 See tel. McMahon to Grey, no. 22, 24 Jan. 1915, FO 371/2478/9057.

10 Clayton to Wingate, private, 5 Feb. 1915, university library Durham, Wingate papers, box 134/2.

11 I.O. to F.O., no. P.373/15, 5 Feb. 1915, FO 371/2478/14108, tel. S.S.I, to viceroy, a8 Jan. 1915, FO 371/2478/11414, tel. resident to S.S.I., 30 Jan. 1915, FO 371/2478/12433, and tel. Grey to McMahon, no. 74, 8 Feb. 1915, FO 371/2478/14108.

12 Wingate to Clayton, private, 13 Feb. 1915, Clayton papers, box 469/8.

13 Wingate to Clayton, very private, 18 Feb. 1915, Clayton papers 469/8.

14 Wingate to Clayton, private, 27 Feb. 1915, Clayton papers, box 469/8.

15 Clayton to Wingate, private, 5 Feb. 1915, Wingate papers, box 134/2.

16 Wingate to Clayton, private, 24 Feb. 1915, Clayton papers, box 469/8.

17 From his answer it appeared that Cromer doubted even more the sense for reality of Pan-Arabs like Rashid Rida. But it was ‘of course, very hard for a man like Rashid, who is evidently intelligent, to believe that Islamism is politically and socially rotten to the core, that regeneration on purely Islamic lines is practically quite impossible and that regeneration on Western lines will destroy all the distinctive features of Islamism’. Cromer to Wingate, private, 11 Mar. 1915, Wingate papers, box 134/3.

18 In this article I shall pay no further attention to Wingate's correspondence with McMahon and Hardinge. Suffice it to say that Sir Henry did not bother to answer Wingate once, and that Lord Hardinge's standpoint as to the policy that ought to be pursued towards the Middle East was not significantly influenced by it.

19 Wingate to Clayton, private, 27 Feb. 1915, Clayton papers, box 469/8.

20 Memo Symes, 15 Feb. 1915, encl. in Wingate to Grey, private, 27 Feb. 1915, P.R.O., Grey papers, FO 800/48.

21 Aide mémoire Sazonof, 4 Mar. 1915, encl. in Buchanan to Grey, no. 44, 13 Mar. 1915, FO 371/2449/35812.

22 Secretary's notes of a meeting of War Council, 10 Mar. 1915, Cab 42/2/5.

23 Minute Clerk, 18 Mar. 1915, on Wingate to Grey, private, 27 Feb. 1915, Grey papers FO 800/48.

24 Memo Morison, not dated, Cab 37/126/8.

25 Secretary's notes of a meeting of War Council, 19 Mar. 1915, Cab 42/4/14.

26 Wingate to Grey, private, 11 Mar. 1915, Wingate papers, box 134/3. The prominent member of the Arab party who had written the letter was Fu'ad al-Khatib.

27 Grey to Wingate, private, 30 Mar. 1915, Grey papers, FO 800/48.

28 Wingate to Grey, private, 27 Mar. 1915, Grey papers, FO 800/48, and Wingate to Cromer, private, 31 Mar. 1915, Wingate papers, box 134/4.

29 Crewe to Grey, private, 13 Apr. 1915, Grey papers, FO 800/98, and minute Asquith, 14 Apr. 1915, and tel. Grey to McMahon, no. 173, 14 Apr. 1915, FO 371/2486/44598.

30 Wingate to Grey, private, 30 Apr. 1915, Grey papers, FO 800/48. In his letter to the grand kadi conveying this promise, Wingate did not mention that the shia holy places were specifically excluded. He did mention their exclusion however, in the letter he wrote to his political officers, and provincial governors in connexion with Grey's telegram. See Wingate papers, box 137/5.

31 Curzon to Cromer, private, 22 Apr. 1915, end. in Cromer to Wingate, private, 23 Apr. 1915, Wingate papers, box 134/5.

32 Cromer to Wingate, private, 23 Apr. 1915, ibid.

33 Memo al-Mirghani, 6 May 1915, encl. in Wingate to Grey, private, 15 May 1915, FO 371/2486/77713.

34 Wingate to Grey, private, 15 May 1915, ibid.

35 Wingate to Cromer, private, 14 May 1915, Wingate papers, box 134/6.

36 Curzon to Cromer, private, 9 June 1915, encl. in Cromer to Wingate, private, 11 June 1915, Wingate papers, box 134/7.

37 Cromer to Wingate, private, 11 June 1915, ibid.

38 Wingate to Cromer, private, 3 July 1915, Wingate papers, box 135/1.

39 Tel. Wingate to Clayton, no. 445, 12 July, FO 882/12.

40 Wingate to Clayton, private, 17 July 1915, Clayton papers, box 469/10.

41 Wingate to Grey, private, 20 July, Grey papers, FO 800/48.

42 Draft and revised draft of tel. Wingate to Clayton, not dated (presumably 12 Aug. 1915), Wingate papers, box 135/2.

43 Note Storrs, 19 Aug. 1915, encl. in McMahon to Grey, no. 94, 26 Aug. 1915, FO 371/2486/125293.

44 Note, not dated, encl. in Abdullah to Storrs, 14 July 1915, Antonius, George, The Arab awakening (New York, 1965 edn), 414Google Scholar.

45 Clayton to Wingate, private, 21 Aug. 1915, Wingate papers, box 135/2.

46 Note Storrs, 19 Aug. 1915, encl. in McMahon to Grey, no. 94, 26 Aug. 1915, FO 371/2486/125293.

47 Tel. McMahon to Grey, no. 450, 22 Aug. 1915, FO 371/2486/117236. McMahon referred to a message sent by Lord Kitchener to Abdullah at the end of October 1914. In this message Kitchener asked ‘the Arab Nation’ to side with Great Britain in the war against Turkey. At the same time he made allusions to the possibility of a khalifate for Husayn, as a descendant of the prophet, if the Arabs would actually proceed to do so. This message was sent, after it had been approved by Sir Edward Grey, without consultation with the India Office. When eventually, in the middle of December, the officials of the India Office received the text of this message, they objected strongly to it. But seeing that Husayn in his answer had made it clear that he certainly was favourably disposed towards Great Britain, but that the internal situation in the Hijaz made it impossible for him to actually side with her, they let the matter rest. See tel. Grey to Cheetham, no. 303, 31 Oct. 1914, FO 371/2139/65589, tel. Cheetham to Grey, no. 310, 10 Dec. 1914, FO 371/2139/81133, and minutes Hirtzel and Holderness, not dated, on FO. to I.O., no. 81133/14, 11 Dec. 1914, L/P& S/10/523, 4855.

48 See draft tel. Grey to McMahon, not dated, and minute Oliphant, not dated, FO 371/2486/117236.

49 Minute Holderness, 24 Aug. 1915, L/P & S/10/523, 3061 a.

50 I.O. to F.O., no. P.3061, 24 Aug. 1915, FO 371/2486/118580. As to the engagements with other Arab chiefs, at the time the Government of India was negotiating with Ibn Sa'ud, and had concluded treaties with the Idrisi, the sheikhs of Mohammerah, Kuwait and Mavia and the sultan of Oman and Muscat.

51 See tel. Grey to McMahon, no. 598, 25 Aug. 1915, FO 371/2486/118580.

52 McMahon to Grey, no. 94, 26 Aug. 1915, FO 371/2486/125293.

53 Wingate to Clayton, private, 27 Aug. 1915, Clayton papers, box 469/10.