38 "It must be abundantly": Weizmann to Brandeis, January 14, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3394, f. 423.

39 "now impossible": British government White Paper, "Notes on Zionism," Part 2. Communications of the Zionist Organization II, JanuaryMarch 1918; April 19, 1918, p. 11; PRO-FO 371/4171, f. 99.

40 "Affairs are in rather": Lawrence to Clayton, January 22, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 25153.

41 "I began to increase": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 462.

42 "Everybody thought": Lawrence to Clayton, January 26, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 25458.

43 It had come at a cost: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 482.

Chapter 17: Solitary Pursuits.

1 "It might be fraud": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 503.

2 "These interests crossed": William Yale's personal account of his intelligence work in Cairo in 191718 is drawn from Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 8.

3 "On the strength of what": Yale to Harrison, December 24, 1917; YU, Box 2, Folder 12.

4 "the truth seems": Yale to Harrison, November 12, 1917; YU, Box 2, Folder 6.

5 "in a few words suggests": Yale to Harrison, February 25, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 19.

6 "a young British officer": Yale to Harrison, November 4, 1917; YU, Box 2, Folder 5.

7 Without those funds: Lawrence to Clayton, January 22, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 25152.

8 "hummed and hawed": Lawrence to Clayton, February 12, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 267.

9 "spend what was necessary": Lawrence's account of his confrontation with Zeid in Tafileh and his subsequent actions is drawn from Seven Pillars, book 7, chapter 90, pp. 499502.

10 "I am getting shy": Lawrence to Clayton, February 12, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 268.

11 In recent months: Lawrence, The Home Letters, p. 341.

12 "To be charged against": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 502.

13 "There was no escape": Ibid., p. 503.

14 "I'm to go back": Lawrence, The Home Letters, p. 348.

15 "Major Lawrence's opinions": Yale to Harrison, March 11, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 21.

16 Instead, he had found a king: David Hogarth, "Report on Mission to Jeddah," January 15, 1918; PRO-FO 882/13 f. 3540.

17 "[Hussein] refers to": Wingate to Foreign Office, February 19, 1918; PRO-FO 3713380, f. 473.

18 In late January, he had penned: Lawrence, "Syrian Cross Currents," Arab Bulletin Supplementary Papers, February 1, 1918; PRO-FO 882/14.

19 "I have urged Lawrence": Clayton to Sykes, February 4, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3398.

20 "As for the Jews": Lawrence to Clayton, February 12, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7.

21 While overtly rebuffing: Wingate to Foreign Office, April 8, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3403, f. 372.

22 "upon which all evidence": Yale to Harrison, March 11, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 21.

23 "one leading principle": British government White Paper, "Notes on Zionism," Part 3. The Zionist Commission in Palestine; February 6, 1919, pp. 1617; PRO-FO 371/4171, f. 102.

24 Certainly there was no: British government White Paper, "Notes on Zionism," Part 3. The Zionist Commission in Palestine; February 6, 1919, pp. 1421; PRO-FO 371/4171, f. 100104.

25 "it was his ambition": Cornwallis to Symes, April 20, 1918; PRO-FO 882/14, f. 35859.

26 "On the whole": Yale to Harrison, April 8, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 25.

27 "cheap Arab labor": Yale to Harrison, March 25, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 23.

28 "as in the [American]": Yale to Harrison, June 10, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 34.

29 "once again, pearls": Aaronsohn, Diary, April 1, 1918; ZY.

30 "It is to be hoped": Yale to Harrison, April 8, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 25.

31 "The abstraction of": Lawrence's account of the expedition to Atatir, and of the deaths of "Daud" and "Farraj" (Ali and Othman), are drawn from Seven Pillars, book 8, chapters 112113, pp. 50717.

32 But then the news: Wavell, The Palestine Campaigns, pp. 17384.

33 "He kept Abbas": McKale, Curt Prfer, p. 54.

34 A much better solution: Bernstorff to von Hertling, July 19, 1918; PAAA, Roll 22348, Turkei 47, Band 7.

35 Abbas clearly sensed: Oppenheim to Jagow, February 23, 1915; PAAA, Roll 21129, Der Weltkrieg no. 11g, Band 7.

36 "There was nothing to do": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 520.

37 While British military communiques: Dawnay to EEF Headquarters, May 1, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 27786.

38 Now, with the proposed: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, pp. 52627.

39 "a regal gift": Ibid., p. 527.

40 "if I should seek revenge": Aaronsohn, Diary, March 21, 1918; ZY.

41 "very little winter cereals": Ibid., April 4, 1918.

42 "Well, Aaron": Ibid., April 6, 1918.

43 "to bridge it over": Ibid., April 20, 1918.

44 Ironically, that venture: Clayton to British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, June 16, 1918; PRO-FO 371/803, pp. 57.

45 "a small favor": Ibid., pp. 45.

46 "all the Jews there": Lawrence to Clayton, February 12, 1918; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 268.

47 "What arrangements": Clayton to Lawrence, May 22, 1918; PRO-FO 141/688.

48 "Interview would take place": General Headquarters to Commandant Akaba, May 24, 1918; PRO-WO 95/4370, App A.

49 "In my opinion, the interview": Clayton to Foreign Office, June 12, 1918; PRO-FO 141/688.

50 "It is difficult to say": Wingate to Foreign Office, March 23, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3403, f. 359.

51 Over the next several months: For the protracted debate within the Foreign Office on what medal to bestow on Faisal Hussein, see PRO-FO 371/3403, File 53608.

52 "to cement the Arab Alliance": Clayton to Foreign Office, April 2, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3403, f. 36466.

53 "At the present day": Mehmet Djemal to Faisal (translator unknown), June 2, 1918; PRO-WO 158/634, f. 137.

54 "if the Arab and Turkish": Hogarth, memorandum attached to "The Arab Question," August 9, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3381, f. 113.

55 For the two days preceding: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, Appendix II.

56 "as soon as Faisal is in possession": Lawrence, "Note," June 16, 1918; PRO-FO 141/688.

57 "there might be some difficulty": Yale to Harrison, March 25, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 23.

58 Really the only way to Palestine: Gary to U.S. Secretary of State, May 30, 1918; NARA RG59, Box 1047, 111.70Y.

59 "our government had no policy": William Yale's account of his intelligence-gathering activities in Cairo in the spring and summer of 1918 is drawn from Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 8.

60 "it is a well-known fact": Yale to Harrison, July 1, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 35.

61 "Quietly these few men": Yale to Harrison, April 29, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 28, pp. 1011.

62 "Referring your report No. 28": U.S. Secretary of State Lansing to Yale, July 9, 1918; NARA RG59, Box 1047, 111.70Y.

63 "capable of a general": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 534.

64 "emanc.i.p.ated from Turkish": Foreign Office to Wingate, June 11, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3381, f. 3536. In fact, this was a rare case of Lawrence's cynicism failing him. As would be revealed at the Paris Peace Conference, Mark Sykes had very carefully phrased his "Seven Syrians" letter so that the promise of independence for lands freed by the "Arabs themselves during the present war" could be interpreted as only applying to those lands freed at the time of writing. By this sleight-of-hand construction, most of greater Syria could be excluded.

65 The cover story Lawrence: Hogarth, memorandum attached to "The Arab Question," August 9, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3381, f. 113. Either this did not end Faisal's overtures to the Ottoman government, or the Germans were not informed of the severing; even into early September 1918, senior German diplomats and military officers wrote of the urgent need to make peace with Faisal.

66 In doing so, all had ignored: Clayton to Foreign Office, May 3, 1918; PRO-FO 371/3403, f. 384.

67 "So for the last time we mustered": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 544.

68 "I request that you see me": Prfer, Diary, July 31, 1918; HO.

Chapter 18: Damascus.

1 "We ordered 'no prisoners' ": Lawrence, "The Destruction of the 4th. Army," October 1918; PRO-WO 882/7, f. 360.

2 British prime minister: Gilbert, First World War, p. 452.

3 "Growing intimacy with": Prfer, Diary, August 30, 1918; HO.

4 It was surely an indication: Prfer to AA, September 3, 1918; NARA T137, Roll 138, Frames 32930.

5 "I'll tell you, Yale": Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 8, p. 30.

6 "[I] lay there all day": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 586.

7 "I have been so violently": Garnett, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 244.

8 If exactly why remains: As in Seven Pillars, Lawrence was peculiarly circ.u.mspect with both Robert Graves and Basil Liddell Hart about his meeting with Nuri Shalaan in August 1918, only allowing that it tormented him deeply. When Graves pressed on the matter, Lawrence replied, "There was a particular and very horrible reason (not published) for my distress at this moment" (Graves and Liddell Hart, T. E. Lawrence: Letters to His Biographers, Pt. 1, p. 103). Similarly, when Liddell Hart asked the nature of the pledge that Lawrence apparently made to Shalaan, Lawrence replied, "Prefer not to reveal." (UT Folder 1, File 1.) 9 Lawrence had finally patched: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 579.

10 "today it came to me": Ibid., p. 586.

11 "It is reported that the Syrians": Yale to U.S. Director of Military Intelligence, September 12, 1918; YU, Box 2, Folder 39.

12 "a pleasant little work": Lawrence's account of the September 1918 offensive in Syria is drawn from Seven Pillars, book 10, chapters 10712, pp. 581660.

13 "I was irritated": William Yale's recollections of the September 1918 British offensive in Syria are drawn from Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 9.

14 "Already the Turkish Army": As quoted by Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, p. 549.

15 "The whole Turkish army": Ibid.

16 To forestall that: Bartholomew to Joyce, September 21, 1918; PRO-WO 157/738.

17 During Lawrence's brief: Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, p. 555.

18 Indeed, so rapid was: Lawrence to Dawnay, September 25, 1918; PRO-WO 157/738.

19 "hopeless but carefree": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, pp. 62829.