LAWRENCE AND ARAB FEDERATION
SIR,—" Most Frenchmen are convinced that Lawrence's dream of a vast Arab Federation under British influence is a dream which successive British Governments have adopted as a secret policy," writes Mr. Harold Nicolson in his" Marginal Comment" of November 26th. I should be grateful if Mr. Nicolson would kindly let us know the evidence for this dream. It is fitting that special importance be attached to Lawrence's views on the Arabs and their problems. But before seeking the cachet of Lawrence's approval for any scheme of Arab Federation, on the lines of recent journalistic pronouncements from Cairo (vide, for example, an article by Reuter's correspondent in Great Britain and the East, Novem- ber 13th), it is essential that his views be stated with accuracy. In this connexion the following quotations are of interest.
"Of course, hak was the main point, since there could not be more than one centre of Arab national feeling ; or rather need not be."
" Ibn Saud is not a system but a despot, ruling by virtue of a dogma. Therefore I approve of him, as I would approve of anythrng in Arabia which was individualistic, unorganised, unsystematic."
"I want you to make it quite clear in your book, if you use all this letter, how from 1916 onwards, and especially in Paris, I worked against the idea of an Arab Confederation being formed politically before it had become a reality commercially, economically and geographically by the slow pressure of many generations."
"Arabia will always, I hope, stand out of the movements of the settled parts, as will Palestine too if the Zionists make good. Their problem is the problem of the third generation. Zionist success would enormously reinforce the material development of Arab Syria and Irak." The above quotations are from a letter specially written for publication in Lawrence and the Arabs (by Robert Graves, Jonathan Cape, 1927). The letter, well worth reading in toto, represents Lawrence's considered opinion after surveying his years of activity, both military and political, vis-a-vis the Arabs. May I be permitted one final quotation?
"I take to myself credit for some of Mr. Churchill's pacification of the Middle East, for while he was carrying it out he had the help of such knowledge and energy as I possess. . . . The work I did constructively for him in 192! and 1922 seems to me, in retrospect, the best I ever
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