ABSTRACT
Sir Reginald Wingate suggested taking advantage of Hogarth's visit to inform Husayn about the lines of British policy. Wingate's action and its approval by the Eastern Committee marks an epoch in the history of the Husayn-McMahon correspondence. The Sykes-Picot agreement, it will be recalled, was negotiated in order to obtain international recognition for, and confirmation of, McMahon's promises to the Sharif. The British authorities were encouraging him to regard this agreement as inimical to his claims and ambitions. Husayn's ambition to be recognized as the ruler of the whole Arab world in fact loomed largest in his conversations with Hogarth, whose formulas could do nothing to assuage Husayn's chagrin and annoyance that Ibn Sa'ud should so obstinately refuse to recognize his claim. Hogarth seems to have used such an argument on his own initiative for, as has been seen, it had occurred neither to Sykes nor to Wingate to refer to McMahon's letters.
