War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

206 WARBYREVOLUTION

sharifcomplainedtoWilsonaboutnumerousissues,including,as
WilsoninformedtheArabBureau,theboundariesofthekingdom
Husaynwas to receiveafterthewar."
Inaddition,Husayn'sforeignminister,Fuadal-Khatib,expressed
toWilsonthesharif'sunhappinessatnotbeingsentairplanes,and
atBritain'sinvolvementwithotherArabchieftainswithouthis ap-
proval.TheministerremindedWilsonofHusayn'sloyaltytoBritain
andofhowthesharifhadnotonlyabandonedtheTurksbuthad
helpeddestroytheGermanattempttopenetrate(intheStotzingen
mission)Arabia,theRed Sea,andAfrica."
ThesefactorsgaveaddedurgencytomeetingsheldduringMay in
theHijazbetweenHusaynandSirMarkSykes, LloydGeorge'srecent
appointeetothesecretariatoftheprimeminister'spowerfulgovern-
mentbody,theWarCabinet,as itsexpertonIslamicaffairs. Bythen
itwasobviousthattheArabrevoltwouldsurvive.Britain,therefore,
couldnolongerignoretheproblemofreconcilingitspreviouscom-
mitmentsonthepostwarMiddleEasttothesharifandthosemade,
throughthesecretSykes-Picotagreementof1916,totheFrench.Some
circles inLondonandCaironowevenquestionedtheSykes-Picot
partitionandpressedfor arevisionto giveBritainastrongerposi-
tioninPalestineandinArabia.Howmuchthesharif,whoaskedthat
bothSykesandFrancoisGeorgesPicotvisithim,knewaboutthe
Anglo-Frenchagreementisunclear,althoughHusayngenerallytried
toexploitthetwopowers'rivalry intheregion.Despitethesecrecyof
thedocument,theItaliangovernmenthadlearnedofit.2S
SykesconferredwithHusaynprivatelyatthebeginningofMay in
Jidda,andtwo weekslaterbothSykesandPicotmettheArableader.
WhetherthevisitorsgavethesharifthedetailsoftheSykes-Picot
agreementstillremainsuncertain.Littledoubtexists,however,that
theyreassuredhimoftheirsupportofArabindependenceandofthe
principleofapostwarconfederationofArabstates.Inadditionthey
discussedwiththesharifFrance'sfuturerole in Syria;Husaynunder-
stoodthatFrancewas to have a placethereandthatBritainrecog-
nizedthelegitimacyofit.WhileinArabia,Sykeswitnessedthecon-
flictsthattheFrenchmilitarymissiontoHusayn,led byEdouard
Bremond,wascausingbetweentheArabsandBritish.Forthefirst
timehe sawtheadvantageofremovingtheFrenchfromtheHijaz.v