Command of the Army, Charles Gwynn and Imperial Policing: The British Doctrinal Approach to Internal Security in Palestine 1919–29

Abstract

This article explores, through a case study the nature of ‘imperial policing', its myriad problems, and the issues confronting the chiefs of the Imperial General Staff as they sought to maintain security against falling budgets and increasing nationalist unrest across a variety of theatres in the period 1919–39. In particular it examines the significance of Charles William Gwynn's (1870–1963), short book Imperial Policing (London: Macmillan, 1934), especially his observations about managing unrest in Palestine in 1929. This work and the official manual of the same title were not the first to offer advice about the containment of civil unrest or the neutralising of insurgency, but it was perhaps one of the most influential of the interwar period and was candid about some of the problems that confronted British forces in the empire. Military Aid to the Civil Power (MACP) was rarely if ever popular with the army, but Gwynn's work at least drew attention to a problem that the army was frequently forced to confront. Several studies have, in recent years, applied scholarly analyses to the tactical and operational issues of MACP, but it is harder to find investigations into the command of ‘imperial policing’, where senior officers had to maintain internal security in regions across the empire with very limited resources under the spotlight of unsympathetic politicians and international media. The relative success of that effort is explored in this article.

Notes

[1] This article is based on a paper for the colloquium on ‘Intelligence and Internal Security in Palestine in the Inter-War Years’ held at University College, Oxford, on 25 April 2013.

[2] The existing scholarship, on which this article is based, is best represented by Darwin, Britain, Egypt and the Middle East; Anderson and Killingray, Policing the Empire; Thomas, Empires of Intelligence; and Jeffery, The British Army.

[3] On the practices used in India, see Kudaisya, ‘“In Aid of Civil Power”'; Moreman, ‘“Small Wars” and “Imperial Policing”’; see also Blyth, The Empire of the Raj; and Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency. To these accounts must be added the Manual of Military Law (1914, 216–70) which should have governed the legal aspects of Dyer's decisions.

[4] Tuteja, ‘Jallianwala Bagh'; Sherman, State Violence and Punishment; and Lloyd, Amritsar.

[5] Irving Hunter Committee, P&J/6/1699, vol. iii., 62, The British Library (hereafter BL).

[6] L/P&J/6/1699, vol. iii., 122, BL.

[7] L/P&J/6/1699, vol. iii., 71, 96, 110–11, BL. From the map in the Hunter Report, vol. 14, 1185, all the rail lines into Amritsar were affected and the trains wrecked, and looting tended to be on the outskirts. The combination of looting and arson and murders was all concentrated in the city.

[8] L/P&J/6/1699, vol. iii., 97, BL.

[9] V 13221, Report of the Commissioners appointed by the Punjab Sub-Commissioner of the INC (Indian National Congress), Bombay 1920, I, 157–58.

[10] Collett, The Butcher of Amritsar.

[11] ‘The Strategical Importance of Palestine’, AIR 5/586 (1923), The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA); French, British Way of Warfare, 177; Ferris, ‘The British Empire vs. the Hidden Hand.

[12] Barr, A Line in the Sand.

[13] League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, Cmd 1785, London: HMSO, 1922; copy in Sir John Walton papers, Mss Eur D545/18, Asia, Africa and Pacific Collections, BL.

[14] Costs of the Mesopotamia Campaign, LG/F/205/6/2, Lloyd George Papers, Houses of Parliament, Parliamentary Archives, London.

[15] Preliminary Assumption by RAF of Military Command of Palestine (1922), AIR 5/188, TNA; Preliminary Scheme for Military Control of Mesopotamia by the RAF 12/3/1920 and 6/5/1920 LG/F/205/6/3 and LG/F/205/6/4, Lloyd George Papers, Houses of Parliament, Parliamentary Archives, London; Omissi, Air Power and Colonial Control.

[16] Bennett, ‘Minimum Force in British Counterinsurgency'; see also Reis, ‘Myth of British Minimum Force.

[17] Initially, Palestine was to be secured by the Indian Army but with overall command exercised by the air ministry. The arrangement did not last long and the RAF assumed full responsibility. See Scheme for the Location, Command and Administration by the RAF in Palestine (1922) AIR 5/198, TNA; see also Jeffrey, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, 252–53.

[18] Gwynn, Imperial Policing.

[19] Long, ‘Sir Charles William Gwynn'.

[20] Some of Gwynn's photographs are in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford: 1998.346.360.

[21] Medal card of Lt Col Charles William Gwynn, WO 372/8/185088, TNA.

[22] King's Regulations and Orders for the Army, II, 76; Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, 217; see also Thornton, ‘The British Army and the Origins of the Minimum Force Philosophy'.

[23] Irving Hunter Committee, P&J/6/1699, vol. iii., 62, BL; Boyce, ‘From Assaye to The Assaye.

[24] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 34–35.

[25] Indian Disorders Committee, Conclusions, 6 May 1919, CP1240, CAB 24/105, TNA.

[26] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 3.

[27] These included the detention of suspects without trial, forcing civilians to repair damage without payment and imposing fines to pay for other labourers working for the authorities.

[28] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 23.

[29] Ibid.

[30] Ibid., 24.

[31] Ibid., 28.

[32] Ibid., 33.

[33] Work on intelligence in Palestine is still being developed. See Wagner, ‘Intelligence, 1920–1939′ which makes extensive use of British, Jewish and Arabic sources.

[34] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 21.

[35] ‘Photos, Plans and Cuttings to the League of Nations relating to incidents around the Wailing Wall and Jerusalem, June–August 1929’, CO 733/160/19/4, TNA; Wasserstein, The British in Palestine.

[36] The Shaw Commission of Enquiry (1929–30) T161/300, and ‘Commission of Enquiry: Miscellaneous Proposals and Garrison’ (1929–30), T161/534, TNA.

[37] Horne, A Job Well Done.

[38] ‘Palestine and Transjordan Defence Estimates’ (1929–30), CO 732/39/5 and CO 732/39/6, TNA; Brigadier E. J. Montgomery, Palestine Police Officer, four letters, PP/MCR/21, EJM/1, The Imperial War Museum.

[39] ‘Further Reductions of Garrison in Palestine, 1923–24’, AIR 5/286, TNA. The Colonial Office had insisted on savings of £1 million sterling.

[40] Henry Wilson, ‘Palestine and Mesopotamia’, printed for Cabinet, 6 May 1920, LG/F/2056/5, and Memorandum by Winston Churchill, circulating and enclosing papers and calling for decision on transfer of Mesopotamia to the Colonial Office (n.d., c. May 1920), LG/F/205/6/1, Lloyd George Papers, Houses of Parliament, Parliamentary Archives, London.

[41] Symes, Tour of Duty, 57.

[42] Powell, Plumer, 299. One participant in violence the year before was Haj Amin El Husseini, the former Ottoman soldier who had joined the Arab Revolt but subsequently became the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He took an active part in the violence in 1929. He later fled to Germany in 1936 and gave his approval to the Nazi Final Solution.

[43] Samuel's ‘Declaration to the People of Palestine’, LG/F/92/16/3, and ‘Draft Mandate’ 15 March 1920, LG/F/92/16/5 and /6, Lloyd George Papers, Houses of Parliament, Parliamentary Archives, London; Shepherd, Ploughing Sand.

[44] ‘Proposals Presented by the Zionist Organisation in Regard to Palestine', (1919), FO 608/99/5, and FO 608/98/8 and Jewish Agency Memorandum on Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929, CO 733/181/1, TNA.

[45] ‘Report on the Palestine Riot, 23 Aug–11 Sep 1929’, AIR 20/5996, TNA; The Shaw Commission (1929–30) T 161/300, TNA; Palestine Disturbances, File 5556/1929, part 1, Departmental Papers, Political and Secret, Subject Files, IOR/L/PS/10/1302 (1929), India Office Records, BL.

[46] ‘Commission of Enquiry, Sir Walter Shaw's Chairman's Copy of Evidence Taken in Camera’, CO 967/91, TNA.

[47] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 226.

[48] ‘Press Reports’, Palestine Disturbances, File 5556/1929, part 3, Departmental Papers, Political and Secret, Subject Files, IOR/L/PS/10/1302 (1929), India Office Records, BL.

[49] ‘Report on the Palestine Riot, 23 Aug–11 Sept. 1929’, AIR 20/5996, TNA.

[50] ‘Report on Casualties Resulting from the Disturbances of 1929’ (1930), CO 733/180/4, TNA.

[51] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 229.

[52] Segev, One Palestine, Complete, 295–313.

[53] Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929, Command Paper Cmd. 3530 (1930), also known as the Shaw Commission Report, TNA. The report was criticised by Samuel in Beneath the Whitewash.

[54] Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929, Command Paper Cmd. 3530 (1930), TNA.

[55] ‘Operations: Palestine, 1920–1930’, AIR 5/1243, TNA; ‘Commission of Enquiry: Sir Walter Shaw's Chairman's Copy of Evidence Taken in Camera’, CO 967/91, TNA.

[56] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 231.

[57] Dobbie, a Royal Engineers officer, had served briefly in the South African War and the First World War in France as a staff officer. He went on to command in Malaya in 1936 and on the outbreak of war was given responsibility for Malta although he was criticised during the siege of the island. A religious man, he was the uncle of Orde Wingate. Dobbie, Faith and Fortitude.

[58] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 248.

[59] ‘Operations: Palestine, 1920–1930’, AIR 5/1243, TNA.

[60] 2/S.Staffs operations in Palestine, BV/52/952, Staffordshires Museum, Whittington Barracks, Lichfield; ‘Operations: Palestine, 1920–1930’, AIR 5/1243, TNA.

[61] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 236.

[62] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 237–38; ‘Operations: Palestine, 1920–1930’, AIR 5/1243, TNA.

[63] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 239.

[64] ‘Operations: Palestine, 1920–1930’, AIR 5/1243, TNA.

[65] It was significant that Sussex had made available 20 officers and 297 men, while Barham had deployed 27 officers and 403 men.

[66] Cole, Imperial Military Geography, 315–16.

[67] Gwynn, Imperial Policing, 249.

[68] ‘Prevention of Crime Ordinances of 1920, 1926 (Amendment) and 1929', CO 733/209/17, TNA.

[69] Claims for Compensation, Loss or Damage during Disturbances of 1929, CO 733/212/6 and CO 733/182/2, TNA; ‘Report on Casualties Resulting from Disturbances of 1929’ (1930), CO 733/180/4; see also ‘Death Sentences Passed on certain Arabs as a result of Disturbances of 1929, Records of Judicial Proceedings Oct 1929–June 1930’, CO 733/181/1-8, TNA.

[70] ‘Policy of the Government’, Palestine Disturbances, File 5556/1929, part 4, IOR/L/PS/10/1302 (1930–31), BL. For the consequences, see Norris, ‘Repression and Rebellion; Hughes, ‘The Banality of Brutality; Hughes, ‘British Private Armies in the Middle East?’.

[71] See also C/417 Procedure for employment of troops in Indian States in aid of the civil power,1932–1937, IOR/R/2/631/224, BL.

[72] Rawlinson Diary, 28 Dec. 1921, Rawlinson Papers, 5201/33/23, The National Army Museum, London.