ABSTRACT
For generations past the Government of India had assumed sole charge of Great Britain's relations with the Arabs. On March 31st, however, the High Commissioner for Egypt assumed charge of all Arab affairs, save those of the south and east coasts of Arabia. 1 In this action, in Foreign Office support of the Sharif of Mecca rather than Ibn Sa 'ud, the protege of the Government of India, and in the incitement of Arabs against their spiritual and temporal overlords - a dangerous precedent, according to Indian authorities -lay the fundamental differences of opinion which gave rise to the two so-called 'schools' of thought on Arab politics. The Anglo-Indian or Eastern Arabia or Sa'udi school viewed Arab politics from the standpoint of the immediate needs ofIndia. It regarded the Wahhabi Amir of the Najd as the proper Arab leader, and it aimed at the penetration of Arabia from the Persian Gulf and Aden, at the indirect control of Arabs in their own spheres and at the absorption, by the Government of India, of Turkish Arabia, that it might, as a western Burma, protect and extend Imperial interests.
