Summary
The declaration made on or about 16 June 1918 to seven prominent Arabs who had sent His Majesty’s Government a memorial on the future of the Arab countries, printed as Annex G of the 1939 committee report on the McMahon–Hussein correspondence (Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca, lines 133, 283-290).
Details
-
The United Kingdom representatives informed the Arab representatives that His Majesty’s Government had found it necessary to make public the declaration’s terms; it is Annex G, read in part 2 of the source (lines 283-290).
-
The Committee expressed no opinion on its proper interpretation, while holding it and the other later statements evidentiary of the responsibilities set out in its para. 22 — that His Majesty’s Government were not free to dispose of Palestine without regard for the wishes and interests of its inhabitants (lines 283-290).
-
Its text as printed in Annex G (lines 745-768) divides the areas into four categories — Arabia free before the war; areas emancipated by the Arabs themselves; Ottoman areas occupied by the Allies; areas still under Turkish control — recognises “the complete and sovereign independence of the Arab inhabiting these areas” (as printed) for the first two, and states for the occupied areas that future government “should be based upon the principle of the consent of the governed” — a policy embodied in the proclamations issued respectively by the General Officers Commanding in Chief on the taking of Baghdad and Jerusalem, which “has and will continue to have the support of His Majesty’s Government”.
Related pages
Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca, McMahon–Hussein correspondence, Hogarth Message, Anglo-French Declaration of 1918