Epilogue
Near post-war - Eurasian
The war was over. The British Empire and the rest of the world were once more on the road to lasting peace. But it would not be a peaceful trip. Many pitfalls to world peace existed in the months and years immediately following the end of the war in the Far East, and at time it seemed as every difficulty resolved by the international community simply created another that needed to be addressed. As the largest player upon the stage of international diplomacy, the British Empire found itself involved in some way with every major crisis, a role that some within the Empire found troublesome but many felt appropriate and befitting the Empire’s stature. These international crises, rightly so, have been categorized into five distinct groups, European affairs, Eurasian affairs, African affairs, Far Eastern affairs and Western Hemisphere affairs.
At the same time that The Hague was hosting an international conference dealing with European post-war issues, Greece was hosting what would become known as the Syros Conference, a meeting of diplomats from the British Empire, France, Turkey, Russia, the newly independent Georgia and Armenia, the Imperial State of Iran and representatives from several organizations with ties the region. As to be expected the Conference was a tumultuous affair given the raw edge of relations between Russia, Turkey and the new Trans-Caucasian republics, between Russia and the British Empire, the souring of relations between the Empire and France and the over all high level of anxiety that existed in the volatile region known as the Middle East. Divided into two distinct parts, Transcaucasian issues and Levant issues, the conference lasted over six weeks and rather than officially ending simply dissolved as the attending parties slowly withdrew from participation with only a handful of things accomplished and none of them completely satisfying to all the involved nations.
Opening the conference was the discussion to determine the official boundaries of Armenia and Georgia in relation to Russia and Turkey and had been thought to be the focal point of the Transcaucasian issues. However, issues relating to the incorporation of Azerbaijan into Turkey quickly mired the conference as the multi-ethnic and multi-religious nature of the Transcaucasus region, something that had been a plague to both Imperial Russia and Communist Russia both, again created issues for the international community. While the borders of Armenia and Georgia were not hotly debated, except amongst the Georgians and Armenians themselves, the delegation from Iran vehemently contested the annexation of Azerbaijan in light of Iran historical and cultural ties to the region, i.e. all of Azerbaijan being a province of Persia until Imperial Russia’s annexation of the region following the 1812 Treaty of Gulistan and a large Azerbaijan presence within northern Iran. The Iranians made it perfectly clear that while they were not making a claim for possession of Azerbaijan and they were not disputing the rights of the Turks to compensation for their efforts against Communist Russia the Shah of Iran, Rezā Pahlavi, was not willing to allow Azerbaijan to be incorporated into Turkey. After a several weeks of negotiations that found the Imperial delegation fulfilling the role of mediator between Turkey and Iran, the threat of war was averted with a compromise of a plebiscite. While not very agreeable to either the Turks or the Iranians, it was determined the best choice was to have the Azerbaijanis determine whether to split the region between the two nations or establish an independent Azerbaijan, their being sentiments for all three within Azerbaijan itself.
Diplomatically, the compromise was a short term success in that war was avoided, yet was a long term fiasco as it soured relations between Turkey and Iran for years and created a morass of the situation in Transcaucasus region, for as expected the referendum on Azerbaijan’s future (undertaken in April 1946) called for the establishment of an independent Azerbaijan Republic. An independent country that harboured ill will toward both Turkey and Iran but also their northern neighbors, Armenia and Georgia, and actively sought out aid from any nation willing to work with Azerbaijan in the Azerbaijanis efforts to deal with their neighbors.
Concurrent with the diplomatic discussions on the Transcaucasian issues there were a series of intense dialogues between France, Britain and the representatives from the different from several organizations League of Nations Levant Mandates being administered by both the Empire and France. The cause the tense talks were the efforts to resolve the disposition of the Mandates sooner than what had been originally determined by the League of Nations during the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Following the end of the Great War, the League of Nations partitioned the Ottoman Empire, granting France mandates over Syria and Lebanon and the British Empire mandates over Mesopotamia and Palestine (which was later divided by the British Government into two regions: Palestine and Transjordan). In the years following the creation of the Mandates, the Empire worked toward a goal of transforming the territories into independent nations, albeit nations dependent upon the Britain for their continued viability. Creation of the Kingdom of Iraq under Faisal I from the body of the Mandate of Mesopotamia came first (Faisal being crowned in 1921 and the Mandate ending in 1932 with Iraq’s admission to the League of Nations), followed by the ending of the Imperial protectorate of Egypt in 1922 and the elevation of the Sultan of Egypt, Fuad I, to King Faud I, and then came the creation of the Emirate of Transjordan under the Hashemite Emir Abdullah whose government was recognized by London in 1923.
Reluctantly, France had begun following a similar course of action, establishing a democratic republic with a parliamentary system of government in Lebanon in 1926 and in Syria in 1930. However, in both republics the French High Commissioner still exercised supreme power in contrast with the Imperial Mandates where British representatives worked side by side with the Iraqis and the Tran-Jordanians. In negotiating treaties of independence, the French moved quite slowly, such a treaty not being completed with Lebanon until 1934 and 1936 for Syria, each treaty stipulating that full independence would take place when deemed in the best interest for the republic in question and France. By the end of 1938 it became clear to the Lebanese and the Syrians that the French government had no intention of ratifying either treaty, partly due to fears that if it relinquished its colonies in the Middle East, it would be outflanked in a war with Nazi Germany that was brewing in Europe, party due to fears of damages to the French economy through the loss of the Levant markets to French goods. The Syrian President, Hashim al-Atassi, resigned over continued French procrastination and made overtures to Britain, Germany Italy and the Soviet Union to assist in the matter while the Lebanese President, Émile Eddé, sent overtures to Germany, Britain and Italy while attempting to work with High Commissioner Gabriel Puaux. The outbreak of war in Europe dropped Lebanese and Syrian issues to very low priority for the European powers as a whole yet with the opening of the Syros Conference their priority skyrocketed to the fore, assisted by Imperial pressure.
The discussions, which the Imperial delegation to the irritation of France opened to include parties from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan, proceeded with the same level of Anglo-French benevolence that had become the norm over the previous four years, or in other words, near unbridled animosity, were conducted with the understanding that French pre-war procrastination was partly of encirclement fears by Germany, partly to exploit the region for what possible gains they could and to have the ability to hold Lebanon and Syria as a prestige leveler against the Empire. While Britain held no special desire for bringing democracy to Syria, as proven with the establishment of royal Egypt, Iraq and Transjordan, what the Empire did desire was for France to move forward with a short term timeframe for independence for the Lebanese and Syrians in order to lower the anti-Western feelings that were beginning to formulate in the Levant. The desire of the Empire to achieve that goal was disclosed as soon as the French grudgingly finally agreed to completing the provisions of the Franco-Lebanese-Syrian Treaty of 1936 by the summer of 1946 (i.e. the full independence of the two Republics), two years ahead of the scheduled demise of the Mandate. What the Empire then disclosed, a closely guarded secret that many attendees of the Conference had suspicions about, was none other than plans for the last of the Levant Mandates, Palestine, which was the establishment of a Jewish homeland within the confines of the Mandate.
The history of Zionism and the desire of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and the Arab rejection of same had reached a boiling over point with the nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in the Mandate of Palestine against British colonial rule and mass Jewish immigration between 1936 and 1939. The revolt itself was sparked by the publication of the Peel Commission which advocated that Palestine be partitioned into two states, one Arab the other Jewish, with the first phase of the revolt, strikes and political protest marches, had been defeated by the British civil administration using a combination of political concessions, international diplomacy (involving the rulers of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan and Yemen), the threat of martial law and the rejection of the Peel Commission’s recommendations in favor of the 1938 Woodhead Commission which proposed that the partition provide for the proposed Jewish state to be substantially smaller and include only the coastal plain. The second phase of the revolt, a violent and peasant-led resistance movement that increasingly targeted British forces started prior to the Woodhead Commission and was a result in the increase of Jewish immigration as well as Imperial refusal to abandon the tepid support for Zionism within the Crown Government. The second phase of the revolt was only brought to an end prior to the outbreak of war through military suppression of the region and the publication of the 1939 MacDonald White Paper which abandoned the Woodhead Commission proposal in favour of creating an independent Palestine governed by Palestinian Arabs and Jews in proportion to their numbers in the 1939 population.
The Empire, which throughout the war had continued to work on a solution to the issue, with Resident Minister in the Middle East, Walter Guinness, Lord Moyne, proposing in November 1943 a partition of Palestine based loosely on the 1937 Peel Commission proposal. The Moyne Proposal called for a Jewish state, a small residual mandatory area under British control, and an Arab state to be joined in federation with Syria pending Syria’s independence from France. However, the Empire had continued to face a great deal of opposition from the Palestinians with the exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, now clandestinely established in Beirut with French acknowledgement, initiating a return to an armed insurgency in early 1944, an insurgency that included a February assassination attempt upon British High Commissioner in Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael and an assassination attempt upon Lord Moyne himself in June, 1944. The assassination attempts did more harm for Palestinian efforts than good for Lord Moyne had proposed in May of 1944 for Palestine to be turned into a federal state with Arab and Jewish constituencies and a constitution similar to Lebanon’s, i.e. positions within the government earmarked for Jew or Palestinian and representation set upon population numbers, but that plan had been rejected by the Crown following the attempt on Moyne’s life in June.
At the Syros Conference, with the war over, the Empire announced that effective September 1, 1945, the Mandate of Palestine would end and the mandate would be partitioned into two states, Jewish and Palestinian. The two states were to each be composed of three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroads. The Jewish state would receive the Coastal Plain, stretching from Haifa to Rehovot, the Eastern Galilee (surrounding the Sea of Galilee and including the Galilee panhandle) and the Negev, including the southern outpost of Umm Rashrash and the port city of Eilat. The Arab state would receive the Western Galilee, with the town of Acre, the hill country of Samaria and Judea, and the southern coast stretching from north of Isdud and encompassing the Gaza Strip, with a section of desert along the Egyptian border. The immediate surroundings of Jerusalem and Bethlehem would be considered the
Corpus Separatum and would remain under direct Imperial administration. The plan also dictated that the Empire would remain in the region in strength until 1950 to ensure a peaceful transition and prevent a civil war between Palestinian and Jew.
As the Syros Conference dragged along toward its initial closing in June 1945, the situation in the Levant escalated in a dizzying speed. While many Arab organizations rejected the Imperial partition of Palestine, supported clandestinely by the French who sought to diminish the Empire’s renown, thanks in large part to British efforts and arrangements, the official position of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the newly created Kingdom of Jordan was of peaceful co-existence with the new Jewish state of Israel. Within Palestine, however, the spring of 1945 were far from peaceful as the joy amongst the Jewish community were counterbalanced by the angry discontent amongst the Arab community. Within days of the Partition’s announcement violence broke out and became more and more prevalent with murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals coming fast on each other's heels. The violence was also carried over to actions against British authorities as well as civilians by Palestinian insurgents, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem calling for war against both Jew and Christian.
The Imperial response came hard and fast. Using the separate treaties the Empire had with Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia (the 1936 Anglo-Egypt Treaty, the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, the 1928 Anglo-Trans-Jordanian Treaty and the 1927 Treaty of Jeddah respectively), the Imperial General Staff orchestrated the deployment of General Brooke’s British Army of North Africa to secure the Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi borders, the deployment of the Gambier Rifle, the King's Own Rockhampton Light Infantry and the Royal Vancouver Fusilier Regiments to secure the Lebanese and Syrian borders and the deployment of the Royal Airborne Army (commanded by General George F. Hopkinson) to maintain order in Palestine. Ignoring warnings from King Abdullah I of Jordan, King Farouk I of Egypt, Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah as Regent for Faisal II of Iraq and Presidents al-Atassi and Eddé of Syria and Lebanon, and energized by speeches from the Grand Mufti, the Palestinians stepped up their insurgency with vicious attacks against civilian and military targets in November 1945. In retribution, aside from a harsh crackdown by the Paras (Colonel Sir Malcolm Drake, KBE, DSO, commander of the King's Airborne Rifle Regiment, in a field interview to a reporter from
The Times, can be said to sum up the feelings of the British Army when he was quoted saying,
‘We’re not bloody well messing around anymore, by God!’), London ordered a redrawing of the Partition that reduced the Palestinian state to encompass only the region of Judea and Samaria and enforcing a mandatory relocation of all Palestinians to the area. This forced relocation, along with the death of the Grand Mufti in Beirut under suspicious circumstances, effectively ended the Second Arab Revolt in Palestine and solidified the borders of Israel, Palestine and the Imperial Enclave surrounding Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
London’s retribution perpetrated a call by Pan-Arab organizations for a rising of the Arab world against both Israel and the British Empire. However, as Abdallah of Jordan, Farouk of Egypt and President al-Atassi of Syria were not only distrustful of Pan-Arab nationalism and sought instead of the growth of their own nationalism, and President Eddé of Lebanon led a nation that had strong pro-Western and pro-Christian elements, the two leading Pan-Arab groups, Arab Ba'ath and the Arab Ihya Movement, were effectively either marginalized or forcibly dismantled. The loss of support for the Palestinians was completed when Jordan officially recognized Israel in May 1946, followed quickly by Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and then with Lebanese and Syrian recognition in July and September 1946. By the end of 1946 the Palestinians themselves, having the majority of the virulent anti-Zionist and anti-British leaders either detained by the Empire or dead through battles against the British or Israeli Army, called for a reorganization of Palestine that would guarantee their independence and friendly relations with Israel.
Before the end of the decade, as promised albeit reluctantly, the French had withdrawn from Syria and Lebanon, and the Empire had withdrawn all forces from the region with the exception of the Suez Canal territory, the Imperial Enclave surrounding Jerusalem, The Trucial States and the Crown Colony of Aden. However, many of the now truly independent nations continued to use the services of the Imperial civil service for governmental administrative work, thus while the Empire had left the region, at the same time it remained in place.
And so resolved the issues created by the death of the Ottoman Empire and the peace of the Great War, were rectified by the peace of The Fourteen Month War of 1939-1941.
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Up Next: Far East
