ABSTRACT
The British high commissioner in Egypt and the Sharif of Mecca exchanged a number of letters now generally known as the McMahon-Husayn correspondence. The possibility of the Ottomans joining the Central Powers, had, of course, now to be reckoned with and, likewise, the possibilities open to Britain in countering Ottoman hostility. In this connexion the intelligence department of the Egyptian war office in Cairo produced a paper dated 6 September, entitled 'Appreciation of Situation in Arabia'. The text of this leaflet, composed in Cairo and published on the high commissioner's authority, was not sent to London until 30 June 1915, and then only in response to an enquiry instigated by the government of India. It created a bad impression at the foreign office. Great Britain had always defended the 'caliphate even if it was a Khaliphate of conquest and necessity as the Turkish Khaliphate.
