De Bunsen Committee Report (June 1915)

Summary

The report of a committee presided over by Sir Maurice de Bunsen, June 1915, whose Palestine extract is printed as Annex J of the 1939 committee report on the McMahon–Hussein correspondence and relied on in the Arab Observations (Annex D para. 11) (Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca, lines 791-801).

The extract, headed PALESTINE: the committee offer no suggestions about Palestine’s future destiny, but, that territory having been included within the geographical limits assigned to the British sphere in the two schemes (of partition, and of zones of interest), they repeat “they see no reason why the scared places of Palestine” (as printed, “scared” for sacred) “should not be dealt with as a separate question” (lines 795-801).
The committee deliberated on the assumption that the French claim will be rejected, being convinced the forces opposed are too great for France ever to make that claim good, but for the same reason considered it idle for His Majesty’s Government to claim the retention of Palestine in their sphere: “Palestine must be recognised as a country whose destiny must be the subject of special negotiations, in which both belligerents and neutrals are alike interested.” (lines 795-801)
The Arab representatives in Annex D cite the extract as evidence that His Majesty’s Government had desired, even in 1915, to withdraw Palestine from the area in which French claims might be recognised (lines 649-655). Whether this committee is the unnamed committee of Annex A para. 7 — set up in March 1915 and reporting in June 1915 in favour of detaching southern Syria from French influence — is not stated in the file and is held open on the source page.