Hussein-McMahon correspondence

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Henry McMahon
Hussein ibn Ali

The Hussein-McMahon Correspondence refers to an exchange of letters between the leader of the Hejaz , Hussein ibn Ali , Sherif of Mecca , and Sir Henry McMahon , British High Commissioner in Egypt in the years 1915–1916. The subject of this correspondence was the political future of the Arab countries of the Middle East, as well as Britain's desire to spark an uprising against Ottoman rule.

McMahon's statements were seen by the Arabs as a promise of Arab independence, which was broken by the subsequent division of the region into areas controlled by Great Britain and France under the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916. A particular controversy arose over Palestine , which the British officials and also McMahon himself described as exempt from the promise after the correspondence became known. Great Britain promised in November 1917 through the Balfour Declaration that it would encourage the creation of a homeland for Jews. The Hussein-McMahon correspondence was discussed again in connection with this declaration. Growing criticism led to an official statement by then Colonial Minister Winston Churchill in 1922, the Churchill White Paper , in which the Balfour Declaration and McMahon's view of the Palestine question were affirmed.

Subsequently, both the binding character of the correspondence under international law and the various formulations made in it were discussed, in particular a formulation about the districts excluded from the commitment and the question of the respective definition and geographical expansion of these districts. The discussion about very specific formulations was made more difficult by the fact that the letters were translated and, after the letters written by McMahon were classified as secret documents even by the official British committee of inquiry, which was set up decades later (1939), only the reverse translations of the Arabic translation of McMahon - Letters templates. The committee eventually came to a very general, inconclusive decision. The Hussein-McMahon correspondence and other similar correspondence, such as the so-called Hogarth message , a message to Hussein on behalf of the British government at the time, is not in a position to finally assess with regard to specific promises. It is only to be stated in principle that Great Britain has undertaken to shape the future of Palestine taking into account the interests of the people living there.

literature

  • Elie Kedourie: In the Anglo-Arab Labyrinth: The McMahon-Husayn Correspondence and its Interpretations, 1914-1939. Cambridge University Press, 1976, ISBN 0-521-20826-2 .

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