ABSTRACT
Direct control of any area, save perhaps that of Basra Wilayet, would run counter to General Maude's Proclamation, to the Anglo-French Declaration, and to the general tenor of the Husain-McMahon Correspondence as well as to the Prime Minister's statement of January 5th, 1918, and to the twelfth of President Wilson's fourteen Points. It would, on the other hand,
Among those who would restrict the participation of Arabs in the government of 'Iraq were those who favoured direct British control. At the other end of the scale, varying in their views as to the degree of responsibility to be given to an indigenous administration, were the Arabs themselves, having an unlimited beliefin their rights and in their own untried abilities; the Englishmen who, like the late T. E. Lawrence, believed in the sanctity of Great Britain's pledged word; those who believed, as doctrinaires believe, in the rights of Arabs to a national existence; and those who held that the interests of the Empire could be as well served and at a much less cost by friendly Arabs supported by Great Britain, as by a direct administration of the country.
