ARAB EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 234, 3 October 1935, Page 6

ARAB EMPIRE.

LAWRENCE'S DREAM.

MAY YET BE ACHIEVED.

(By ARPAD SZIGETVARY.)

It is remarkable how the dreams of many great men are fulfilled only after death. Such would seem to be the case with Lawrence. Through life lie dreamed of a great Arab Empire. For his dream and the people it concerned ho gpent the best years of his life in a vocation he hated —'that of a soldier. With the capture of Damascus, the rightful capital of an Arab, Empire, and-with Feisal, his friend and choice of Emperor-to-be, enthroned as King there, Lawrence's dream was oil the threshold of fulfilment. Then came Versailles and the shattering of the dream. Feisal left the conference deprived of the throne of Damascus and a iinited Arabia. Lawrence left the conference a brokenhearted man, disillusioned and embittered. The Arab Empire he had fought and schemed for and tentatively achieved collapsed, dismembered chiefly through the jealousy and aspirations of the French. In its place there arose the mandated areas of Syria, Palestine, Transjordania and Iraq, the Kingdom of the Hejaz, the Sultanates of Xejd and Yemen and several minor semi-independent States. Lawrence is dead, but not liis dream. A united Arabia is again in the making. The Versailles Division. To understand the position fully one must first go back to the division of Arab country in Asia after the peace treaties, country which, ■prior to the war, had been, with the exception of Syria, Palestine and areas in British spheres of influence, under the nominal suzerainty of Turkey. Over Syria and Palestine the Turks exercised a certain measure of concrete control. The peace treaties allocated mandates over Palestine and an undefined area across the Jordan River to Great Britain, and over Syria and Lebanon to France. The sole reward of the Arabs for their assistance to the Allies during the war was the recognition of a semi-independent status for the Kingdom of the Hejaz, and independent sulI tanates governing Yemen and Xejd. The Sultanate of Kuweit, on the Persian Gulf, came definitely under British protection. The Sultanate of Oman, situated at the south-eastern extremity of the Arabian Peninsula, remained in treaty relationships \vith Britain through the Indian Empire. Aden and numerous islands were retained in British possession. The British set to work immediately to grant to the people of their mandates at least a measure of independence. The first step was the elevation of Hussein, a descendant of Mohomad, to the throne of an independent Kingdom of Hejaz. His son, Feisal, ousted by the French from the throne of Syria, was created King of Mesopotamia under its new name Iraq. The undefined area over the River Jordan from Palestine was formed into a territory of undelineated boundaries under the rule of Feisal's brother, Abdullah, as Sultan. The country is now officially known as Transjordania, but to the Arabs it is Kerak. The Hejaz remained nominally independent, but King Hussein received a heavy annual subsidy from Britain'.' Rise of Ibn Saud. So far British influence in the* Peninsula, secured through political influence and subsidies to sultans and petty chiefs, had remained unchallenged. Then out of the desert arose Ibn Saud, head of the fanatical Wahabis, the Puritans of the Moslem world Fierce fighters, with no fear of /cleath, they proved too much for the forces of King Hussein. The aged Hussein fled in a British warship, to die in exile in Cyprus. The Wahabis rapidly overran the country and Ibn Saud established himself as King. The Wahabis gave as their reasons for the seizure of the country the desire to deliver the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from the hands of co-religionists who had so far forgotten the tenets of Mohammed as to drink alcohol, to smoke and to appreciate articles of worldly beauty. With Ibn Saud a blood enemy of Britain's •proteges, Feisal and Abdullah, British influence began to wane. The change of rulers coincided with the time when Soviet propaganda overseas was at its strongest, and Moscow was not long in appointing the first accredited foreign minister to the court of the Hejaz. Hitherto the British representative had been more in the nature of a Resident. The Soviet, however, had little or no influence on Ibn Saud, who was more favourable to the Italians, who were now endeavouring to gain influence in Arabia. After consolidating his position in the Hejaz, Ibn Saud turned covetous eyes 011 his neighbours, including Iraq. The incursions of his marauding troops into British mandated territory reached serious proportions and the situation became critical. Britain did not resort to arms, but to a master stroke of diplomacy. By means yet undisclosed, she persuaded Ibn Saud to meet Kin? Feisal aboard a British gunboat in the Persian Gulf. There, on neutral ground, was accomplished a still more marvellous thing—a treaty of friendship between these two sworn blood enemies. British influence in Arabia was once more in the ascendancy, aided by a subsidy now granted to Ibn Saud.

Kingdom of "Saudi Arabia." An attempted conquest of li'aq abrogated by tlie treaty, Ibn Saml turned his attention to Yemen and leaser sultanates. These were soon brought under, his control. Ibn Sand's next step was to proclaim the whole of unmandated and non-British Arabia the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I lie next step in the political history of Arabic Asia was the granting of nominal independence to Iraq by Britain. To-day, with the exception of French" mandated Syria, the whole of Arabic Asia is divided between llm Saucl, Britain's protege Iraq, spheres of direct British political influence and actual British possessions. The last named include Aden and the strategical islands of Perim and Kamaran 111 the Red Sea, Kuria Muria, off the south coast of Arabia, and Bahrein in the Persian Gulf. Oman, in treaty alliance with Britain, is unique in that it possesses territory in India, the town of Gwadar. Ihis division of Arabia between two States has greatly simplified matters and brought nearer the possibility of a limited Arabia. ° A fact little realised is that Great Britain is the predominant Power in the Moslem world. With Arabic Asia under her aegis her influence in Asia and Africa would be increased almost beyond reckoning, and Japan's growing influence, even in Saudi Arabia, correspondingly diminished. Thus it is i„ Britain's interests to sponsor a united Arabia, which would take the form of an Empire-with Ibn Sand at its head, the nominal ruler of the self-governing kingdom of Iraq, the principalities of Trans" jordania and Yemen and many lesser sultanates, the whole in close alliance with Great Britain. 1 here are valid grounds for believing that Britain is actively engaged in nil attempt to bring Lawrence's dream to realisation.