Abstract:
This study traces British government policies with regard to Palestine from the time the British Expeditionary Forces under General Allenby invested Jerusalem in December 1917 to the imposition of the Mandate with Britain as the Mandatory power, which came into effect on July 22, 1922. The first chapter provides an historical introduction and examines the sequence of events leading to the Balfour Declaration of November 1917. The
subsequent chapters deal with British policies during the Military Administration, which lasted from 1917-1920, and then with the Civilian Administration up until Britain
formally assumed the Mandate of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Perhaps no policies ever pursued by successive British governments have been more fraught with ambivalence and contradiction than those of the Palestine mandate. British interests were defined not only by moral concerns with regard to the position of the Jewish people,
but strategic considerations of Palestine and its geographic location as a buffer zone to the lifeline of the empire--the Suez Canal. In this respect, the government of India, the source of the British military power in the
Near East exerted as much, and sometimes more, influence over British Middle East policy as the Foreign Office, and later, the Colonial Office combined. The inclusion of the Balfour Declaration in the Mandate placed the British government in an extraordinary and difficult position. On one hand, they were pledged to establishing a National Home for the Jews under the auspices of British protection; on the other, to placating
the rising frustrations of the Arab populations, whose contributions to their liberation from Turkish rule were negligible. This thesis will support the premise that the
Arabs were indebted to the British, not vice versa. Many British-Arab agreements during the war years, including the controversial Hussein-McMahon correspondence of 1915, were predicated on the assumption that the Arabs would stage a general uprising against Turkish rule and desert the Ottoman's armies in large numbers. The general revolt never materialized; Arab inaction during the war
influenced British policies towards their aspirations in the region once the war ended. British policy towards Palestine was not shaped by Britain alone. The United States, though not a member of the League, had pervasive influence in the matter, as did France and Russia. Particular attention will be paid to these topics later. Finally, a short profile on Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner for Palestine is provided in the Appendix.
