Redrawing the Middle East by Michael D. Berdine

Author:Michael D. Berdine [Berdine, Michael D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, History
ISBN: 9781786724069
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2018-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

THE BALFOUR DECLARATION

[Sykes] became an enthusiastic Zionist, and his enthusiasm found an entirely new scope when he became a secretary to [the] War Cabinet … In his new capacity Sykes practically took charge of all the negotiations which led up to the Balfour Declaration. The Zionist movement owed much, at a critical moment in its history, to his infectious enthusiasm and to his indefatigable energy.

Leopold Amery1

On his return to London in June 1917 Sykes was surprised to learn of an American effort to negotiate a separate peace with the Turks. Henry Morgenthau, Sr., the former US ambassador to the Ottoman Porte (1913–1916)2 and a prominent American Jew, with the support of President Wilson and US Secretary of State William Jennings Bryant, a vocal opponent of the war, had arranged to meet Ottoman representatives. While Morgenthau's official purpose was to help relieve the suffering of Jews in Palestine during the war, Sykes saw this as a potentially serious blow to Zionist plans. He immediately contacted Weizmann on how to handle what he believed was an American peace overture to the Turks. He also alerted the foreign secretary, who was considering sending Sir Louis Mallet, the former British ambassador to the Porte (1913–1914) to meet Morgenthau on his trip east. Sykes persuaded Balfour to send Weizmann instead, as he was convinced that Mallet was a member of the “pro-Turk gang” in the Foreign Office.3

Meanwhile, a second approach for a separate peace with Turkey was received by the Foreign Office from Switzerland.4 With some input from the Zionists, Sykes handled this one himself. At the time, Balfour had also referred this to Sir Louis Mallet, who was now working in the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office. In response, Mallet wrote a paper on a separate peace with Turkey, which naturally came to Sykes's attention. Vehemently opposed to any separate peace with Turkey, Sykes wrote a nine-page letter to Lord Robert Cecil on 29 July critiquing Mallet's paper. In his view, Sykes told Cecil, any approach by the Turks, whether through intermediaries like Marmaduke Pickthall, or even a former US ambassador to the Porte, should be viewed with the utmost suspicion. He opposed their attempts and those of others’ to cooperate directly or indirectly through intermediaries with the CUP, the Young Turks’ political arm and its leaders, in seeking a separate peace. In typical Sykesian hyperbole he characterised the CUP as “evil, corrupt, and hostile, either to this country or the welfare of mankind, and that not one of them desires our future security.” All his arguments boiled down to one thing: if a separate peace were negotiated with Turkey, everything would go back to the way it was and the Zionists would be unable to establish a homeland in Palestine.5 Thus, all his hard work to bring about the peace settlement he envisioned would have been wasted.

At the end of June, as Britain's designated representative Weizmann met the American mission in Gibraltar headed by Henry Morgenthau and Harvard Law Professor Felix Frankfurter before they met the Ottoman representatives.

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