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Abstract
The decision to sever Trans-Jordan from the territory of the Jewish National Home was taken during the period when Winston Churchill, an avowed friend of the Zionists but not au fait with Middle Eastern problems, served as Colonial Secretary. It was T.E. Lawrence who persuaded him that Britain was indebted to Emir Faisal for his contribution to the Allied victory over the Turkish army and that therefore the territory of Trans-Jordan should be allotted to Sharifian control. Churchill disregarded the consensus among British ministers that the boundary between Palestine and the Arab state should run about ten miles east of the River Jordan, and thus caused a heavy disappointment to Chaim Weizmann and his colleagues. It was H. St. John Philby, Lawrence's successor in Trans-Jordan, who more than anyone else was responsible for the final demarcation of the boundary along the River Jordan, bisecting the Dead Sea, in contradiction to what had been understood as the borders of the Jewish National Home at the time of the Balfour Declaration.
Notes
1. This is an abbreviated version of a chapter of my forthcoming book Miscalculations by the British and the Rise of Moslem Nationalism. CitationMoshe Braver, in his book Gvulot Yisrael, as well as CitationGideon Biger in his book Eretz rabat gvulot, discuss the question of the eastern border of Palestine solely from the geographical aspect.
2. See map facing p. 1 in CitationCuinet, Syrie, Liban et Palestine; “The Historical Connection between Egypt and Syria,” Memorandum by M. Pyrrie Gordon, Intelligence Department, Public Record Office, London, Foreign Office files (hereafter FO) 141/587/545, p. 59.
3. Public Record Office, London, Cabinet Papers (hereafter CAB) 27/1, 30 June 1915, C.I.D. Secret, 220 B.
4. CitationFriedman, Palestine, xx–xxxv, 17–37.
5. Ibid., xlvii–xlviii, 43.
6. Ibid., 217–24, 228–29, 238.
7. See CitationFriedman, The Question of Palestine, 97–118; idem, Palestine, 47–59.
8. Young (FO) to Deedes (Jerusalem), 12 November 1920, Sir Hubert Young Papers, DS 42.3.G7, Archives of the Middle East Centre, St. Antony's College, Oxford. For the CitationMeinertzhagen Line, see p. 69 and map on p. 70 below.
9. Young to Deedes, 30 December 1920, ibid., File 3, GB165-0309.
10. Draft agenda for the Cairo Conference, Minute by Shuckburgh, 26 February 1921, Public Record Office, London, Colonial Office files (hereafter CO) 732/3.
11. CitationFriedman, Palestine, 3–6, 44–45.
12. For a discussion, see ibid., xl, lix, lxvi, 11, 13.
13. Ibid., 12.
14. Weizmann (Paris) to Vera, 31 January 1919, in Citation The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann (hereafter: L.Ch.W.), vol. 9, letter 114, p. 108.
15. Ibid., n. 5.
16. Statement of the Zionist Organization Regarding Palestine, 3 February 1919, reproduced in ibid., app. 2, 391–402, and in Friedman, ed., The Rise of Israel, vol. 10, doc. 57, 195–209. See also Friedman, Palestine, chap. 9, n. 39. The boundaries of Palestine were suggested first by Aaronsohn, Yoman Aaron Aaronsohn, entry 27 January 1919, 494–97, and in FO 608/98, 375/2/2. On 29 January, when Aaronsohn met Sykes in Paris, the latter told him “Go east as far as you like.” The area east of River Jordan was sparsely populated by nomad Bedouins (Aaronsohn, Yoman Aaron Aaronsohn, Citation497–98).
17. “Memorandum by Mr. Frankfurter of an Interview in Mr. Balfour's Apartment,” Paris, 24 June 1919, in Citation Documents of British Foreign Policy (hereafter DBFP), vol. 4, app. 2, pp. 1276–78.
18. “Memorandum by Mr. Balfour (Paris) respecting Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia,” 11 August 1919, in ibid., no. 242, p. 347.
19. Cited in CitationKlieman, Foundations of British Policy, 70.
20. Meinertzhagen to Curzon, 17 November 1919, FO 371/4186/2117; a copy in Meinertzhagen, Middle East Diary, 61–65, which includes the map reproduced here.
21. Minute by Robert Vansittart, 22 March 1920, p. 160, FO 371/5032, E 1248/1/44.
22. Friedman, Palestine, 12. See also CitationSmith, Atlas. At a meeting of the Supreme Council on 25 April 1920 in San Remo, Lloyd George praised Smith's book as “the ablest book on Palestine which had ever been written. He recommended it to British Military experts who used it practically as a textbook” (FO 371/5244).
23. “France and the Northern Frontier of Palestine,” Memorandum by E.G. Forbes Adam, 30 December 1919, FO 371/4215/50535.
24. Minute dated 17 March 1920, p. 159, FO 371/5032, E 1348/2/44.
25. Vansittart (Paris) to Young, 21 June 1920, Confidential, FO 371/5244, E 7033/4164/44.
26. Weizmann to Samuel, 29 July 1920, in L.Ch.W., vol. 10, letter 3, p. 5.
27. The Jewish Chronicle, 1 November 1918.
28. “Eastern Frontier of Palestine,” Memorandum by Samuel, 8 June 1920, FO 371/5035, E 6224/85/44.
29. Samuel to Curzon, Rome 26 June 1920, DBFP, vol. 13 no. 269, pp. 295–96.
30. Curzon to Samuel, 6 August 1920, ibid., no. 298, p. 331.
31. “Foreign Office Memorandum on possible negotiations with the Hedjaz,” ibid., no. 342, p. 399.
32. Weizmann to Vera, 23 February 1921, in L.Ch.W., vol. 10, letter 127, p. 153.
33. Weizmann to Churchill, 1 March 1921, in ibid., letter 135, pp. 159–62. According to the Tribal Book of Syria (as referred to by Major J.N. Camp), the total population of Kerak was 5,000 (3,500 Muslims and 1,500 Christians), and of Es Salt, 17,000 (12,000 Muslims and 5,000 Christians). “Notes on southern part of Trans-Jordania by Major J.N. Camp, Government House, Jerusalem,” 27 July 1920, Israel State Archives, Jerusalem (hereafter ISA), Record Group M, file 2/50.
34. Samuel to Curzon, 6 December 1920, DBFP, vol. 13, no. 345, p. 411.
35. Samuel to Curzon, 12 December 1920, Very Urgent, ibid., no. 347.
36. According to this agreement, France ceded Cilicia to Ataturk, whereas the latter gave France a free hand in Syria. Feisal was thus deprived of Turkish support.
37. “Note by Captain Garland on the Khurma Dispute,” encl. in Allenby to Curzon, 15 June 1919, Confidential, FO 371/4146/142.
38. Samuel to CO, 10 March 1921, FO 686/78.
39. “Report on the Middle East Conference held in Cairo and Jerusalem, March 12th to 30th 1921,” CO 935/1, 1921, Section 3, Palestine, 97–99; a copy in FO 371/6343.
40. What follows is based on the “Report on Trans-Jordania,” in ibid., 107–14.
41. Ibid., 114.
42. The letter of Abdullah is dated 28–29 March 1921. A Hebrew translation from Arabic is found in the Weizmann Archive, Rehovot, Israel. The present author could not trace the original Arabic or its translation into English among the Colonial Office files. A search among the Churchill papers at the Cambridge University Mss. Library was also of no avail.
43. The Times, 6 April 1921, 9. The report of the Jerusalem Correspondent is dated 31 March 1921.
44. Lawrence to Churchill, 9 April 1921, cabled by Samuel on the following day, FO 371/6372, fo. 33.
45. “Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Colonies,” submitted to the Prime Minister, 2 April 1921, CAB 24/122.
46. Meeting 11 April 1921, CAB 23/25; CitationGilbert, ed., Churchill, Companion, 4:1435–36.
47. Admiralty to FO, 18 July 1921, FO 371/6372.
48. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 5th ser., 14 June 1921, col. 289.
49. Samuel to Churchill, 13 June 1921, dis. no. 160, CO 733/3, pp. 628–31; a copy in FO 371/6372.
50. Congreve to Young, 16 June 1921, CO 733/17a, 32297.
51. Minute by T.E. L[awrence], 29 June 1921, ibid.
52. Shuckburgh, a Note for Secretary of State, 1 July 1921, ibid.
53. Report no. 5, by Abramson, 1 July 1921, CO 733/4.
54. Cited in Samuel to Churchill, 11 July 1921, ibid., 36252.
55. Young to Deedes, 18 July 1921, CO 733/17a, 32297.
56. Cited in Samuel to Churchill, 25 July 1921, tel. no. 290, CO 733/4, 37473.
57. Reports by Abramson, nos. 4, 5, 6, Amman, 5 June, 1 July, and 1 August 1921, and Minutes by Young and Curzon, 1 August 1921, CO 733/3, 733/4, 733/5.
58. “Note by Major Somerset,” undated, received 19 August 1921, CO 733/14, 41846. On conditions in Trans-Jordania, see also CitationVatikiotis, Politics and the Military in Jordan, 64–68.
59. Minute by Clauson, 21 September 1921, CO 733/11, 47205.
60. Young (Jerusalem) to Shuckburgh, 30 September 1921, CO 733/17a, 56584.
61. Young to Shuckburgh, 7 October 1921, ibid., 5685.
62. Cited in CitationWilson, Lawrence of Arabia, 660, 662.
63. “Report by Colonel Lawrence on the Situation in Trans-Jordania,” 24 October 1921, CO 733/7; Samuel to Churchill, 24 October, tel. 436, and 4 November 1921, ibid.
64. Samuel to Churchill, 24 November 1921, ibid.
65. Cited in Dann, Studies in the History of Transjordan, 41.
66. Churchill to Samuel, 4 November 1921, Personal and Private, CO 733/15, 58211. See biography by CitationMonroe, Philby of Arabia.
67. Lawrence's reports in CO 733/7, 733/19, 733/23, etc., as summarized by CitationDann, Studies in the History of Transjordan, 42.
68. Shuckburgh to Mastenton-Smith, 31 January 1921, and Churchill's Minutes 3, 7 February 1921, CO 733/8, 261.
69. De Saint-Aulaire to Tyrrell, 4 November 1921, CO 733/11, 56061.
70. Reports of the Executive of the Zionist Organisation, Citation38.
71. Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, Cmd. 1500 (London, 1921), 12; Cmd. 1785 (London, 1922), 8.
72. Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, Cmd. 1176 (London, 1920).
73. Young to the Secretary of the Cabinet, September 1922, FO 371/7791, E 39393/65/65. A copy was sent to the Foreign Office, as well as to the India Office.
74. Ibid.
75. Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, Cmd. 5479, (London, 1937), 28.
76. Minutes of the 21st Session of the Council, League of Nations Official Journal 3 (1922): 1188–89; Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, Cmd. 1785 (London, 1923), 10–11.
77. Protokolle der Verhandlungen des Zionisten Kongressen, Citation13: 169.
78. CitationJewish Agency for Palestine, Citation Memorandum Submitted to His Majesty's Government , May 1930, 66. See also, idem, Memorandum to the Palestine Royal Commission, 1936, 210–13.
79. League of Nations, Permanent Mandates Commission, Minutes of the Fifteenth Session Held at Geneva from July 1st to 19th, 1929, C. 305, M.105 (1929). The Report of the Commission to the Council has the same number.
80. League of Nations, Permanent Mandates Commission, Minutes of the Twenty-Third Session Held at Geneva from June 19th to July 1st, 1933, C. 406, M.209 (1933), 97–98.
81. Director of Department of Commerce and Industry (Jerusalem) to Philby, Chief British Representative in Amman, 31 May 1922; “Minutes of meeting held at Government House in the Office of the Legal Secretary,” 19 June 1922, ibid.; Richmond to Philby, 23 June 1922; Deedes to Churchill, dis. no. 478, 7 July 1922, ISA, Record Group M, file 6/179.
82. “Minutes of meeting held at Government House in the Office of the Legal Secretary,” 10 July 1922, ibid.
83. Samuel to Churchill, 28 July 1922, Confidential, FO 371/7791, E 39393/65/65, ibid.
84. Churchill to Samuel, 15 August 1922, tel. no. 258, ibid.
85. Samuel to Churchill, 27 August 1922, tel. no. 309, ibid.
86. Churchill to Samuel, 28 August 1922, tel. no. 280, ibid.
87. Samuel to Churchill, 30 August 1922, ibid.
88. Clayton to Shuckburgh, 13 July 1923, The Sudan Archive, Durham University, SAD 513/5.
89. Cited in CitationWilson, King Abdullah, 82.
90. Weizmann to Sokolow, 24 May 1922, in L.Ch.W., vol. 11, letter 102, p. 99.
91. Milner to Churchill, 3 September 1922, Confidential, CO 733/38, 45058; and Minutes by Clauson and Young, 13 September 1922.
92. Weizmann to Churchill, 1 March 1921, in L.Ch.W., vol. 10, letter 135, p. 160. For other sections from this letter, see above, p. 71.
93. Meinertzhagen Papers, Archives of the Middle East Centre, St. Antony's College, Oxford. A translation of Meinertzhagen's letter to Samuel Landman appeared in Ha'aretz, 3 November 1967.