A KING FOR SYRIA

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 79, 6 October 1939, Page 2

A KING FOR SYRIA

GROWTH OF ARAB POWER

LAWRENCE'S PROPHECIES

COMING TO PASS

the Emir Abdullah of TransJordan may become the first King of Syria. If he does he will be the second of the four Sons of the late King Hussein of Hejaz to sit upon a new throne. Feisal, late King of Irak, was the first of this remarkable quartet to occupy a kingdom carved from the ruins of the' old Turkish Empire. For sheer romance it would be hard to find an equal among modern households to this noble Arab family. With Hussein and his four sons, and with Ibn Saud of Nejd, is bound up the rise of the Arab people to a place of new strength in the Middle East. Their lands—lrak and Trans-Jordan— already occupy a position of great strategic importance on the highroads between Europe and Asia, and if to their present domain be added Syria, this HaShamite dynasty will be more powerful than ever, writes Rex Miller in the Christian Science Monitor. For the continuance of a national Jewish state in Palestine, this consolidation of Arab rule is anything but promising. Look at the map and you will observe a rapidly solidifying Moslem bloc of nations extending from Persia and Arabia through Irak, Trans-Jordan and Syria to Turkey on the north and Egypt on the south. Little Palestine clings precariously to the fringes of this flowing Arab robe. How long can it resist the Arab onrush? Lawrence's Abdullah That certain prophetic utterances of Lawrence of Arabia are being fulfilled has been pointed out before now. Abdullah's candidacy for the Syrian throne is but another step in this direction. Surveying the four sons of Hussein to find a leader of the Arab cause, Lawrence in 1916 found Feisal best qualified to command; and it was Feisal who after the war sat first upon a throne. Lawrence found Abdullah indolent and merry, not wanting in ability, but hardly the person to lead a crusade. He Summed it up as follows: "I became more and more sure that Abdullah was too balanced, too cool, too humorous to be a prophet, especially the armed prophet who, if history be true, succeeded in revolutions. His value would come perhaps in the peace after success." Abdullah's value, while far from negligible during hostilities, did indeed come to fruition after peace was made. And now it gives promise

of reaching its zenith. The French are inclined to think that he, as King, may be able to bring an end to the shortcomings of the Republican regime of Syria.

Candidate Zeid

Also mentioned for the Syrian kingship is another of the sons of Hussein, Abdullah's half brother Zeid. Zeid has the reputation of being pro-German, and this will not help him as a candidate for rulership over a French protectorate.

Lawrence has also left a word portrait of Zeid as a young man in the following words: "Zeid was a shy, white, beardless lad of perhaps nineteen, calm and flippant, no zealot for [the revolt. Indeed his mother was Turkish, and he had been brought up in the harem. So that he could j hardly feel great sympathy with an Arab revival. Zeid was, of course, even less; than Abdullah the born leader of my quest. Yet I liked him, and could See that he would Tie a decided man when he had found himself." Zeid, too, fought bravely in the war. Now that the Arab star is in the ascendant, he may receive his reward. Sykes-Picot Treaty Prophetic also, in view of the present French policy of granting greater freedom to its Syrian dependency, are these comments of Lawrence: "The Sykes-Picot Treaty of 1916 between France and England . . . stipulated the establishment of independent Arab states in Damascus, Aleppo and Mosul, districts which would otherwise fall to the unrestricted control of France. Neither Sykes nor Picot had believed the thing really possible, but I knew that it was, and believed that after it the vigour of the Arab movement would prevent the creation—by us or others—in Western Asia of unduly I 'colonial' schemes of exploitation."

Time is proving that Lawrence was right again.