Abstract
For two years after the German and Turkish armistices, the formation of British imperial policy, especially in the Middle East, remained profoundly influenced by the ideas, the preconceptions and the priorities instilled by four years of war government. The continuation of this wartime mentality was reflected at home in the very high levels of army manpower and military spending which were tolerated, although grudgingly, long after January 1919 when demobilisation had begun; in the continuing interest which ministers displayed in the closer military integration of the Empire;1 and in the formulation of plans designed to retain British manpower within the Empire through government participation in a programme of Empire settlement.2 In the Middle East, the legacy of wartime strategic thinking showed itself in the willingness of ministers to endorse proposals which were aimed at excluding Britain’s imperial rivals from political influence in the region. Moreover, the attainment of a costly military victory had encouraged a belief not only in the necessity of reconstructing the Ottoman and Persian Empires in ways which would buttress Britain’s imperial security; but also in the practicability of such a venture. Thus for long after November 1918, few doubts had been entertained about the ultimate feasibility of British attempts to bend Persia and Turkey to their imperial design, even if there were differences about the right method to employ.
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Notes
For example, Jellicoe’s naval mission to India and the dominions, 1919–1920. See S. W. Roskill, Naval Policy Between the Wars, vol. I (London, 1968) ch. VIII.
I. M. Drummond, Imperial Economic Policy 1917–1939 (London, 1974) ch. 2.
R. Ullman, The Anglo-Soviet Accord (London, 1972) p. 447.
H. St. J. Philby, Arabian Days (London, 1948) p. 193; historical note by Sir P. Cox in The Letters of Gertrude Bell, ed. Lady Bell, vol. 2 (London, 1927).
S. H. Longrigg, Iraq 1900–1950 (London, 1953) p. 128.
M. Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. IV, 1917–1922 (London, 1975) pp. 511–12.
M. Gilbert, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 537; B. C. Busch, Britain, India and the Arabs 1914–1921 (Berkeley and London, 1971) p. 465.
This incident is described vividly in H. St. J. Philby, op. cit. and dispassionately in E. Monroe, Philby of Arabia (London, 1973) p. 108.
P. Sluglett, ‘Profit and Loss from the British Mandate: British Influence and Administration in Iraq 1914–1932’ (Oxford D.Phil. 1972) p. 386.
For British policy towards Palestine and Trans-Jordan at the time of the Cairo Conference, A. S. Klieman, Foundations of British Policy in the Arab World: the Cairo Conference 1921 (London, 1970); M. Gilbert, op. cit., vol. IV, pp. 560–1.
The Turkish National Pact of 1920 is printed in A. J. Toynbee, The Western Question in Greece and Turkey (2nd edn, London, 1,923), pp. 209–10. For its implications, see memo, by Andrew Ryan, 17 Feb. 1922, D.B.F.P. Is., XVII, p. 630.
C. E. Callwell, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: His Life and Diaries, vol. n (London, 1927) p. 292.
This memo, of 24 May 1921 (C.P. 2964, CAB. 24/123), is printed in Thomas Jones, Whitehall Diary, vol. III, Ireland 1918–1925, ed. K. Middlemas (London, 1971) pp. 71–2.
Owing to a renewed Greek offensive. M. Llewellyn Smith, Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor 1919–1922 (London, 1973) pp. 223–4.
M. Cowling; The Impact of Labour (Cambridge, 1971) p. 121; C. L. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars (London, 1966 edn) p. 130. In June 1921 two by-elections in coalition seats were won by ‘Anti-Waste’ candidates. M. Kinnear, The Fall of Lloyd George (London, 1973) p. 95.
S. W. Roskill, Naval Policy Between the Wars, vol. I (London, 1968) pp. 268, 357.
E.g. D. Walder, The Chanak Affair (London, 1969) pp. 287–9.
The best account is in C. J. Edmonds, Kurds, Turks and Arabs (London, 1957) pp. 244–62; 296–312. Edmonds was a political officer in Kurdistan at the time.
See Cox’s letter to a friend, 22 Sep. 1922, P. Graves, The Life of Sir Percy Z. Cox (London, 1941) p. 319.
For Loraine’s activity, G. Waterfield, Professional Diplomat (London, 1973), chs. 6, 7.
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© 1981 John Darwin
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Darwin, J. (1981). The Limits of Imperial Power. In: Britain, Egypt and the Middle East. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16529-2_8
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