Table Of ContentBRITAIN, EGYPT AND THE MIDDLE EAST
CAMBRIDGE COMMONWEALTH SERIES
Published in association with the Managers of the Cambridge Univer
sity Smuts Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Commonwealth
Studies
General Editor: E. T. Stokes, Smuts Professor of the History of the
British Commonwealth, University of Cambridge
Roger Anstey
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND BRITISH ABOLITION,
1760-1810
John Darwin
BRITAIN, EGYPT AND THE MIDDLE EAST: Imperial Policy in
the Aftermath of War, 1918-1922
T. R. H. Davenport
SOUTH AFRICA: A MODERN HISTORY
B. H. Farmer (editor)
GREEN REVOLUTION? TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGE IN
RICE-GROWING AREAS OF TAMIL NADU AND SRI LANKA
Partha Sarathi Gupta
IMPERIALISM AND THE BRITISH LABOUR MOVEMENT,
1914-1964
R. F. Holland
BRITAIN AND THE COMMONWEALTH ALLIANCE, 1918-1939
Ronald Hyam and Ged Martin
REAPPRAISALS IN BRITISH IMPERIAL HISTORY
W. David Mcintyre
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SINGAPORE NAVAL BASE
T. E. Smith
COMMONWEALTH MIGRATION: Flaws and Policies
B. R. Tomlinson
THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS AND THE RAJ, 1929-1942
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE RAJ, 1914-1947
John Manning Ward
COLONIAL SELF-GOVERNMENT: THE BRITISH EXPERI
ENCE, 1759-1856
Further titles in preparation
Britain, Egypt and the
Middle East
Imperial policy in
the aftermath of war
1918-1922
John Darwin
© John Darwin 1981
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981 978-0-333-27073-8
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1981 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Darwin, John
Britain, Egypt and the Middle East
-(Cambridge Commonwealth series)
I. Great Britain - Foreign relations - Near East
2. Great Britain - Foreign relations -
1910-1936
3. Near East - Foreign relations -Great Britain
I. Title II. Series
327.41'056 DA47.9.N2
ISBN 978-1-349-16531-5 ISBN 978-1-349-16529-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-16529-2
For G. M. Darwin
Contents
Preface lX
Abbreviations in Notes xi
Introduction xiii
PART I IMPERIAL POLICY AND BRITISH POLITICS
1 The Traditions of Imperial Policy and the Leaders
of the Coalition 3
2 The Domestic Origins of Imperial Policy 25
PART II PROBLEMS OF POLITICAL CONTROL:
EGYPT 47
3 British Policy and the Origins of the Post-War
Crisis 49
4 The Emergence of a Policy 80
5 Egypt and the Cabinet 108
PART III PROBLEMS OF IMPERIAL EXPANSION:
THE MIDDLE EAST 139
6 War and Imperial Policy in the Middle East 1918-
1919 143
7 The Search for Security, 1919-1920 170
8 The Limits of Imperial Power 208
PART IV CONSEQUENCES 243
9 Indian Policy and the Oil Question 245
10 Conclusion 266
Notes 279
Bibliography 315
Index 325
vii
Preface
This book has been written as a contribution to the study of Britain's
imperial decline in the twentieth century. Its aim has been to trace the
reaction of the directors of British imperial policy to the problems and
opportunities which the Great War and its aftermath created for them in
Egypt and the Middle East, regions which had been considered of
fundamental strategic importance to Britain since the early nineteenth
century. The years of the aftermath have a special significance for the
historian of the later phase of British imperialism. The First World War
has often been seen as the great watershed in Britain's imperial career,
the prelude to an era in which the rise of colonial nationalism and the
decline of her economic and military strength enforced a gradual retreat
from the grandiose legacy of the Victorians. Moreover, in the four years
after 1918 these newfound weaknesses appeared to show themselves as
Britain struggled against powerful nationalist movements in Ireland,
India and Egypt and became embroiled in costly local conflicts in the
Middle East. In their response to the challenge of Egyptian nationalism
and in their estimate of Britain's strategic necessities in the Middle East,
it is possible to see at work some of the most influential assumptions that
guided British policy-makers in imperial questions up until the cata
clysm of the Second World War.
Neither this book nor the research that it required would have been
possible without the help and encouragement I have received. I owe a
great deal to those who taught me as an undergraduate at St
John's College Oxford and to the friendly and bracing atmosphere of
Nuffield College. Above all I owed a great debt of gratitude to the late
Jack Gallagher.
I should like to acknowledge the assistance of the Research Board of
the University of Reading and of the staffs of the institutions whose
records and archives I have consulted. I should also like to thank
the editor of the Cambridge Commonwealth Series for his help and
advice.
Quotations from the Austen Chamberlain Papers are made with the
kind permission of the University of Birmingham; those from certain
IX
X PREFACE
letters in the Montagu Papers by kind permission of the Master and
Fellows of Trinity College Cambridge. Transcripts of Crown-copyright
records in the India Office Records appear by permission of the
Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Abbreviations in Notes
A. C. Austen Chamberlain Papers
Addit. Milner Papers Additional Milner Papers, Bodleian
Library, Manuscript Collection
Balfour Papers British Library Additional Manu-
scripts, A. J. Balfour Papers
B.L.P. Bonar Law Papers
CAB. Cabinet Records, Public Record Office
Chelmsford Collection Chelmsford Collection, India Office
Library, Mss. Eur. E. 264
C.I.G.S. Chief of the Imperial General Staff
Curzon Collection Papers of 1st Marquess Curzon in
Foreign Office Records (F.O. 800)
Public Record Office
Curzon Papers Papers of 1st Marquess Curzon in India
Office Library, Mss. Eur. F 112
D.B.F.P. Is. Documents on British Foreign Policy,
First Series
D.C.S.M. Documents Collected for the Special
Mission to Egypt
Fisher Papers Papers of H. A. L. Fisher
F.O. Foreign Office Records, Public Record
Office
I.D.C.E. Inter-departmental Committee on
Middle East Affairs
L.G.P. Lloyd George Papers
Lothian Collection Papers of ll th Marquess of Lothian,
Scottish Record Office
Milner Collection Papers of lst Viscount Milner in Public
Record Office
Milner Papers Papers of lst Viscount Milner in Bod
leian Library, Oxford
P.R.O. Public Record Office
S.S.C. Secretary of State for the Colonies
XI
