Thurs. Oct 2. [2 October 1919] Went to see the C.G.S., Sir Louis Bowes, and lunched with him and his second in command, General Wavell, a cousin of the Mecca [Makkah] pilgrim. Mrs Wavell was also there, a very agreeable woman. General Bowes's office suffers as much as I do from the rigidity of Col. Meinertsthagen [i.e. Meinertzhagen]. General Bowes believes that when the French take over the Syrian coast and we move out of the Arab province there will be a massacre of the Christians in the latter district. The Arab leaders have warned him that they cannot control the Moslem population if the French rouse its animosity by showing favour to the Christians. They have also said that under no circumstances will Arab troops fire on British troops if the latter are ordered to repress disturbances. This will make it very difficult for our troops to fire on theirs, with the result that the French will accuse us of not playing the game. Picot has returned today to Beyrout [Beyrouth (Beirut)] as plenipotentiary for Syria, news which is of bad omen and shows that Clemenceau is not prepared to take the advice which Lord Allenby offered him. Picot is a protÈgÈ of Pichon. General Bowes says that Faisal is much preoccupied by the prospect of the ejection of the Turks from C'ple [Istanbul (Constantinople)] and is against it. Faisal appears to reckon on the Khalifate remaining with the Sultan of Turkey. He says that it is impossible to distribute the holy towns of Islam between different mandatories, and he counts Damascus [Dimashq (Esh Sham, Damas)] and C'ple as among the holy towns. Hence it is clear that he would prefer the nominal suzerainty of Turkey, excercised [sic] from C'ple, over the new independent Arab states. It seems unlikely that he can achieve this object. In the afternoon I went to see Sir William Willcocks. He talked much of the importance of providing for the drainage of Mesopotamia before completing any irrigation scheme. He has refused to go out in order to take part in the Qurnah [Qurnah, Al] reclamation scheme, on the ground that until the settlement with Turkey is reached and a definite form of government established in Mesopotamia, it is idle to embark on projects of this nature. He would like to be asked by the British administration to come out for a month this winter and give his views on irrigation, irrespective of whether those views were likely to be accepted or not. His views on the Egyptian situation are not worth recording. At 6.30 Dr Faris Nimr, editor of the Muqattam, came to see me and stayed till 8.30. After a few preliminary enquiries about Mesopotamia, he began to talk of the Syrian Question. Dr Nimr is a Syrian Christian of Hasbeyah [Hasbaiya]. His father and two of his uncles were killed by the Moslems in the disturbances of 1880[?]; he himself has lived in Egypt for 39 years and has gained a position of distinction, not only as the part proprietor of the most weighty of Arab newspapers, but also as a man of discernment, moderation and honesty, an earnest Syrian patriot, fully alive to the shortcomings of his compatriots. He has preached union, political and religious - no small matter in the light of his own family history; he has held firmly to the hope that the day would come when, with the help of Great Britain, he would see his own country set upon the path of progress as he had seen Egypt regenerated by Cromer, whose devout admirer he remains. These hopes, these dreams, rekindled by the events of the war are now extinguished and he looks blankly forward into years which hold no promise but of strife or of national extinction under French rule. He left me with little doubt that the latter was the sole alternative. He told me that day by day in their Egyptian organs, the French publish blacklists of the Syrian nationalists whom they intend to proscribe when they take over the country, and these are accompanied by boast that France is irresistible and that the Syrians shall know it and pay for the knowledge. With Picot already in Beyrout as plenipotentiary no better wisdom is to be anticipated. He is, however, ceaselessly urging the Nationalists, both Moslem and Orthodox to make no resistance, assuring them that neither England nor America will come to their aid and that oppostion to France is hopeless. I fear, or perhaps I should say, I trust that I crowned his despair as regards America; the strong conviction expressed by the two American delegates who visited Syria (he saw them here on their return) that the country would never accept a French mandate, has almost persuaded him, against his better judgment that at the last resort the U.S.A. would intervene. We sat in the garden under the night, his homely, unromantic face and stout person illuminated by the lights on the verandah, where, before we had finished our talk, a crowd of British officers and Englishwomen were dining. My heart burned, my heart ached as I listened to him. Quanto dolci pensier, quanto desio - and the doloroso passo is all the more bitter because the thoughts were nobler and the desire ran in broader channels. \n\nHe spoke also of Zionism, in which he is a firm disbeliever. He cannot understand why we should have given it support. I replied that under a British mandate it was unthinkable that the Moslem population should be unfairly treated, but he replied that he feared that was not the case and gave the instance of the cessation of loans to Moslem landowner which I had already heard at G.H.Q. Owing to the destitution caused by the war, it was feared that before the settlement Moslems owning land would be forced to place themselves in the hands of Jewish or other moneylenders and a Government fund was established for the purpose of granting loans to tide them over their difficulties. It worked excellently, but the manager of the Jewish bank, [space left blank], sent in a complaint to Weizman that the British administration was playing a part which should be filled by Zionists. Weizman brought pressure to bear on the Foreign Office and the system of loans has been ordered to be discontinued. The local British authorities have protested against the decision. Our law courts are, it is true, presided over by British officers, but they are Jews and Zionists and the Moslems regard their judgements as prejudiced. He is strongly against the division of Palestine from Syria. \n\nHe said that the Beduin tribes on the Syrian frontier were anxious to settle and would do so very rapidly if a good and stable government were established in Damascus. I asked him whether Faisal had not great influence with the tribes. He replied that he had, as long as we were behind him but that if we abandoned him he would count for nothing, either with the tribes or the settled people. \n\nHe fears that massacres of the Christians are inevitable in the Arab province if the French take over the coast. The hatred between Moslem and Christian which he watched gradually disappearing, and rejoiced to watch it disappear, has revived with astonishing speed since the French have been in Beyrout. Maronites openly boast that their day has come and exasperate the Moslems. \n\nAbout 5 weeks ago there were disturbances between the Nosairis, in the mountains north of Lebanon and another local Moslem faction Ismailiyah. The French, on the excuse of quelling disorder, burnt several Nosairi villages. This will quicken the willingness of the Nosairis to adopt the Nationist [sic] programme, which is that they to the north and the Metawalis to the south should rise and kill Christians. It is not considered expedient to {incite} use the Druses of the Lebanon who are on the Nationist side, as it would raise the Maronites against them and produce an internal conflict by which the French would be the gainers. Talking of Zionism Dr Nimr said that Faisal had seen Weizmann at 'Akabah [Aqaba] and that W. had there persuaded him of the {feasibility} compatibility of Jewish claims with Arab ambitions, but that with better acquaintance with Zionist aims, Faisal had changed his views. Dr Nimr then spoke of Egypt. He is of opinion that none of the Nationists know what they really want and most of the leaders have been pushed into opposition by not being able to obtain ministerial posts. This is notably true of Sa'ad Zaghlul who after being given office by Cromer, was continuously turned down by Kitchener, McMahon and Gorst. He is a truculent, overbearing man, difficult to work with. Muhammad Mahmud, who held office in the provinces, was turned out by Haines and threw in his lot with the Nationalists. Lord Cromer's plan was the right way of dealing with Egypt; for the most part he was a strictly constitutional ruler, but he was always ready to turn autocrat, not to say tyrant for a day or two - the old leopard walked the streets and Egypt trembled. So it trembled before General Bulfin; he quieted Egypt in three days, but when Allenby returned from Paris, and like an honest gentleman admitted our mistakes, his concessions were misunderstood. It was true, as General Clayton told me, that universal rejoicings and a return of British popularity {appear} marked the succeeding day, but that was only because the Nationalist organization was not ready. Two days later, before the Erbakiyah affair, the processions had begun again "and you could judge from their songs what was their temper, for they sang 'The victory is ours'." Dr Nimr is against any scheme of making ministers responsible to the Legislative Assembly, on the ground that no Cabinet would endure a week. He is in favour of wide measures of self-government, but of nothing approaching to independence. "The Egyptians cannot manage their own affairs." It is always to be remembered that Nimr represents the side which would lose, for he is too much tarred with our brush to maintain his position under an Egyptian Nationist rÈgime. He is also a Christian and as he observes: At the bottom of the Nationalist feeling is the Moslem hatred of Christian rule. He likes and praises General Clayton but says that while he knows the Sudan, he is comparatively new to Egypt and quite new to his present post which is the most difficult and responsible in the country. He wishes that he would refrain from definite judgments for three months. He believes that the Milner Commission will be boycotted and feels sure that its appearance will be the signal for strikes in all Government departments. As he left he asked me if I had seen Saiyid Talib and whether he would be allowed to return to Basrah [Basrah, Al (Basra)]. His health, says Dr Nimr, is in reality quite solid. That was also my impression.