Summary
British official, co-author of the Sykes–Picot agreement and, in the United Nations study’s account, the Zionist movement’s key guide into British official channels before the Balfour Declaration (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 229-261).
Details
- The study lists Sykes among the British leaders with whom Chaim Weizmann established links, alongside Lloyd George, Arthur James Balfour and Herbert Samuel (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 229-233).
- Weizmann, as quoted in the study: “One of our greatest finds was Sir Mark Sykes, Chief Secretary of the War Cabinet … It was he who guided our work into more official channels”, in a War Cabinet secretariat that contained Leopold Amery, Ormsby-Gore and Ronald Storrs (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 233-241).
- Sykes advised that “the Zionists should approach M. Picot and convince the French” to relinquish their claims in Palestine, accompanied Nahum Sokolow to Paris, and was preparing to tell Picot that Britain meant to insist on some form of British suzerainty in Palestine (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 249-261).
- At the end of January 1917 Weizmann submitted his committee’s memorandum to Sykes and held preliminary conferences with him; Sykes attended the 2 February 1917 meeting of representative Zionists in London that began the prolonged exchange leading to the Declaration (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 263-273).
- Sykes was among those, with Samuel, who drafted the Zionist Organization’s 1919 memorandum to the Paris Peace Conference, as the study presents it (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I), lines 463-471).
Related pages
Sykes–Picot agreement, Balfour Declaration, Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1947 (Part I)