McMahon correspondence Sir: Mr J. S. F. Parker seems to
feel (3 April) that as Palestine was not among the territories specifically excluded from McMahon's letters to King Hussain, the Arabs were justified in assuming that it was promised to them. In fact, neither Sir Henry nor the Britishgovernment were intent on bestowing independence by pregnant silence, and whatever meaning might
have been read into the famous exchange of letters, they never had the force or character of a treaty.
Mr Parker misses one of the central points in The Anglo-Arab Labyrinth, namely that McMahon never promised Hussain more than four towns, and even that promise was subject to reservations. Had Mr Parker assimilated the text fully, he would have noticed that in July 1937 a senior Foreign Office official, G. W. Rendel, propounded a view not too dissimilar to his own. The masterly way in which Professor Kedourie demolishes this view (p.262) remains an object lesson to aspiring historians.
Lionel Bloch 9 Wimpole Street, London W1
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