Lawrence of Arabia, Zionism and Palestine - The World War I ...

62 ZIONISM AND PALESTINE
Not all this opposition was unreasonable or reactionary.
For four centuries the Arabs, Moslem as
well as Christian, of Syria and Palestine (one country
though administratively divided into two), 1 had groaned
under the heavy empty hand of Ottoman misrule. After
the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 the grasp had
seemed for a while to lighten, but too soon the Arabs
found that though forms might alter, facts remained
unchanged—that even now they were denied the official
use of the noble Arabic language. For the generation
before the War a hope had arisen. The gaze of Syria
was bent on the South-west, where across the Sinai,
barely one hundred miles away, shone before them
another ancient country, restored to prosperity and
endowed with the civilization of Europe by the power
of Great Britain and the genius of an Englishman. 1
The English yoke in Egypt, compared with that of the
neighbouring Powers elsewhere, seemed in Syrian eyes
easy and uninterfering. A national Sovereign sat on
his throne, assisted by a Council of Egyptian Ministers,
against a background of parliamentary institutions.
No attempt was being made to impose the English at
the expense of the Arabic language or culture, or to
manipulate the Customs tariffs for the benefit of
British trade. 3 For Syrians the hope had been that
1 Owing to the number and delicacy of international problems
in Jerusalem, the Mutasarref, or Governor of Judaea, corresponded
directly with Constantinople, and not through the Vali of Syria,
though Palestine and Syria were one military command.
2 Evelyn Baring, Lord Cromer.
3 This British fairness of outlook in the matter of contracts is
well seen in the reply to the protests of the British Boilermakers,
Iron and Steel Ship-builders and Gas-holder-makers Society when
the contract for a Nile Bridge was adjudicated to the Fives LUI
Company because of their £18,000 lower tender. "It is impossible
for the British Government to do more, in connection with the
placing of orders by the Egyptian Government, than to give all
the assistance they properly can to the representatives of British
Firms who offer tenders, and to see that no unfair preference
is given to others." This attitude was appreciated by Egyptians :