GUEST OF MIDIAN
SIR,—Reviewers" of Mr. Philby's books have a habit of blaming those British officials who, in 1914-24, backed what reviewers call the 'Sharifians': they echo Mr. Philby's approval of Ibn Saud's expulsion of them from Arabia in 1924.
Non nobis• tantas componere lites; but it is worth recalling what happened on the west side of the Arab Quadrilateral in 1914-18.
In August, 1914, General Sir Reginald Wingate, who was then managing most of North-East Africa, with the help of the Islamic leader Said Ali Morghani of Kassala, contacted Sharif Hussein el Hashim, who then held the high Islamic post of
Grand Sharif of Mecca. Of Hussein's sons, Abdullah at that time held cabinet office in the Turkish Govern- ment, and Feisalmheld high rank in the Turkish army. Their position was a difficult one; but in June, 1916, Sharif Hussein and his sons came out on our side, and achieved, among other things, our occupation of the useful harbour of Akaba : and in 1919 Feisal and T. E. Lawrence represented them at the Versailles conference.
However, in 1919 Curzon dismissed Wingate (Sir Reginald, not his famous cousin), and we put in the French instead of the Arabs at Damascus, and the Germans instead of the French west of the Rhine.
On the east side of Arabia we were represented by Captain Shakespeare until he was killed in action in 1917, and then by Mr. Philby. What they accomp- lished I do not know : certainly Mr. Philby's account of Ibn Saud's early career is worth reading; but I write to say that there is something to be said for the 'Sharifians,' and for the British officials (there are some distinguished names among them) who tried to help them.—Yours faithfully,
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