42 "the opinion of Sir Mark": Nicolson precis for Balfour, July 11, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3044, f. 28693.
43 "Hitherto the work": Sykes to Drummond, July 20, 1917; MSP-68.
44 "Lawrence"s move": Sykes to Clayton, July 22, 1917; MSP-69.
45 "What have you promised": Lawrence to Sykes, September 7, 1917; SADD Clayton Papers, 693/11/38.
46 "It is in fact dead": Clayton to Lawrence, September 20, 1917; SADD Clayton Papers, 693/11/912.
47 "to all intents and": Yale, Diary, September 8, 1917; YU Box 2, Folder 2.
48 "This Jewish chemist": Ibid., September 12, 1917; YU Box 2, Folder 2.
49 "swept off the top": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 367.
50 "towards some rough country": Lawrence to Clayton, September 23, 1917; PRO-FO 882/4, f. 71.
51 "seized my feet": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 369.
52 "The conditions were": Lawrence to Clayton, September 23, 1917; PRO-FO 882/4, f. 71.
53 "I hope this sounds": Lawrence to Stirling, September 25, 1917; UT, Folder 6, File 7.
54 "I hope when the nightmare": Lawrence to Leeds, September 24, 1917, in Garnett, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 238.
Chapter 15: To the Flame.
1 "I only hope and trust": As quoted by Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, p. 455.
2 "He listened very": Aaronsohn to Alex Aaronsohn, October 1917; YU, Box 2, Folder 11.
3 "does not wish to see": Yale, Diary, September 25, 1917; YU Box 2, Folder 2.
4 "Pascal," he wrote: Aaronsohn to Alex Aaronsohn, October 1917; YU, Box 2, Folder 11.
5 In his more bitter: Clayton to Joyce, October 24, 1917; PRO-FO 882/7, f. 175; Joyce memo, undated; PRO-WO 158/634. See also Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, pp. 44748.
6 After the operation: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, pp. 38789.
7 "almost indispensable": Clayton to Wingate, November 13, 1916; SADD Wingate Papers, 143/2/190.
8 By then, the Managem: Florence, Lawrence and Aaronsohn, pp. 29899.
9 Sure enough, rumors soon began circulating: Sheffy, British Military Intelligence in the Palestine Campaign, p. 162; Engle, The Nili Spies, pp. 16768.
10 "Today we don"t want": Florence, Lawrence and Aaronsohn, p. 303.
11 "I want to be": Engle, The Nili Spies, pp. 18687.
12 As a result: German warnings to the Turks over the treatment of Jews continued even after the NILI spy ring was broken, with German amba.s.sador Bernstorff counseling Talaat Pasha to "not let a single case of Jewish espionage blow up into a full-fledged persecution of Jews." Bernstorff to Foreign Ministry for Warburg, October 26, 1917; NARA T120, Roll 4334, Frame K179639.
13 Those spies had been: See Sheffy, British Military Intelligence in the Palestine Campaign, p. 162 nn. 77 and 78.
14 "For those who had long": Florence, Lawrence and Aaronsohn, p. 326.
15 By that afternoon: Engle, The Nili Spies, p. 202. Hunted by both Turkish authorities and Jewish vigilante squads, Joseph Lishansky finally ran out of luck on October 20, when he was captured outside Jerusalem. Along with Naaman Belkind he was convicted of treason, and in December 1917 both men were publicly hanged in Damascus.
16 For four days, she lingered: There is a wide divergence among published accounts on both the duration of the NILI raid on Zichron Yaakov, and on how long Sarah Aaronsohn survived after shooting herself. The latter question would seem to be resolved by the testimony of the doctor summoned after the shooting, who stated it was October 5, and by the two German nuns who attended Sarah, who stated she died on October 9.
17 "We are doing our best": Engle, The Nili Spies, p. 191.
18 "He is not well": Hogarth to Ormsby-Gore, October 26, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3054, f. 388.
19 "I"m not going": Lawrence to Leeds, September 24, 1917, in Garnett, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 238.
20 His comprehensive report: See various George Lloyd reports on Hejaz economy and political situation, Autumn 1916, in GLLD 9/8.
21 "I think I could be": Lloyd to Clayton, September 30, 1917; GLLD 9/13.
22 "Lawrence is quite fit": Lloyd to Clayton, October 20, 1917; GLLD 9/13.
23 "He has a lion"s heart": Clayton to Lloyd, October 25, 1917; GLLD 9/10.
24 "The view up the pa.s.s": Lloyd, "Diary of Journey with T.E.L. to El Jaffer," October 24, 1917; GLLD 9/11.
25 Should Lawrence become: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, pp. 42123.
26 "To them he is Lawrence": Lloyd to Clayton, November 5, 1917; GLLD 9/10.
27 Lawrence was surely: Liddell Hart, Colonel Lawrence, pp. 19394.
28 If Bremond was wrong: Prfer to Oppenheim, November 3, 1914; NARA T137, Roll 23, Frame 213.
29 "L not working": Lloyd, notes from travels, undated but late October 1917; GLLD 9/10. In his authorized biography of Lawrence, Jeremy Wilson incorrectly transcribed a crucial point in George Lloyd"s handwritten note, rendering Lloyd"s original "HMG" (an abbreviation for His Majesty"s Government) as "Allied." As a result, his quote from Lloyd inaccurately reads, "Lawrence not working for Allies but for Sherif." Obviously, this error lends a very different meaning to that Lloyd intended-and to what Lawrence presumably said-but it is an error that has been repeated by many of those Lawrence biographers who have sought wherever possible to attribute Lawrence"s acts of official disobedience as directed against Allied (i.e., French) actions rather than against the British government.
30 "He would like me": Lloyd, "Diary of Journey with T.E.L. to El Jaffer," October 28, 1917; GLLD 9/11.
31 "otherwise" ... "his independent activities": Knabenshue to U.S. Secretary of State, October 23, 1917; NARA RG59, Box 1047, 111.70Y1/3.
32 Indeed, just days before: Ibid., November 4, 1917; NARA M353, Box 6, Frame 0827.
33 In defending his: Hoover (U.S. Consul, So Paulo, Brazil) to U.S. Secretary of State, August 21, 1917; NARA M367, Roll 217, doc.u.ment 763.72112.5321.
34 "The information the British": Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 8, pp. 1819.
35 And even if British: Yale, It Takes So Long, margin note, chapter 7, p. 21.
36 "Dr. Weizmann": Weizmann, Trial and Error, p. 208.
37 "His Majesty"s Government": As reproduced on frontispiece by Stein, The Balfour Declaration.
38 "I am very anxious": Clayton to Lloyd, November 12, 1917; GLLD 9/10.
39 To the great good fortune: Lawrence"s account of the Minifir train attack is in Seven Pillars, book 6, chapters 77 and 78, pp. 42534.
40 "To me" ... "an unnecessary action": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 163.
Chapter 16: A Gathering Fury.
1 "With reference to": Syrian Committee of Egypt, November 14, 1917; YU, Box 3, Folder 8.
2 "The British Authorities": Yale to Harrison, December 17, 1917; YU, Box 2, Folder 11.
3 "He hesitated to": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 435.
4 "It was icy cold": Ibid., p. 439.
5 "The carrying out": Weizmann to Aaronsohn, November 16, 1917, reproduced in Friedman, Zionist Commission, pp. 1920.
6 "The old man": Aaronsohn, Diary, November 16, 1917; ZY.
7 "provided it can": House to Drummond, September 11, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3083, f. 107.
8 "asks that no mention": Wiseman to Drummond, October 16, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3083, f. 106.
9 "help our United States": Weizmann to Aaronsohn, November 16, 1917, reproduced in Friedman, Zionist Commission, pp. 1920.
10 His brother"s cable: Verrier, ed., Agents of Empire, p. 295. While accurate about the fate of Sarah Aaronsohn, the cable was in error on other aspects. The elderly Ephraim Aaronsohn survived his imprisonment in Damascus and was subsequently released, while Belkind wasn"t executed until December 14.
11 "The sacrifice is": Aaronsohn, Diary, December 1, 1917; ZY.
12 It"s unlikely that": Lawrence"s account of his torture at Deraa is in Seven Pillars, book 6, chapter 80, pp. 44147.
13 "pale and obviously": Mack, A Prince of Our Disorder, p. 233.
14 "fitter and better": As quoted by James, The Golden Warrior, p. 214 n. 17.
15 "by virtue of Abd el Kader"s": Lawrence to Stirling, June 29, 1919; UT (copy) Folder 6, File 7.
16 "About that night": As quoted by Brown, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, pp. 26162.
17 "Every time I come to Beirut": Agent 92C, "Syrian Politics," December 9, 1917; PRO-WO 106/1420.
18 "A sort of commander-in-chief": Lewis, "An Ottoman Officer," in Kushner, Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period, p. 413.
19 "It is true that some time": Agent 92C, "Syrian Politics," December 9, 1917; PRO-WO 106/1420.
20 On November 7: As Russia still used the Julian instead of the Gregorian calendar at the time, the date is remembered in Russia as October 25-hence the "October Revolution."
21 "The [Sykes-Picot] Agreement": As quoted in Antonius, The Arab Awakening, p. 255.
22 "I am going to Constantinople": Agent 92C, "Syrian Politics," December 9, 1917; PRO-WO 106/1420.
23 "But what sort of independence": Ahmed Djemal Pasha to Faisal (undated), translated and sent from Wingate to Balfour, December 25, 1917; PRO-PRO 30/30/10 f. 67.
24 "[it] was the supreme moment": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 453.
25 "The French officers": Sykes to Graham, May 5, 1917; MSP-41d.
26 Anxious not to appear: Foreign Office to Wingate, May 29, 1917; SADD Wingate Papers, 145/7/11415.
27 "warm compliments": Wilson to Bremond, September 21, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3051.
28 "Bremond"s antecedents": Wingate to Graham, December 10, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3051.
29 "Salad, chicken mayonnaise": Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 455.
30 A few days prior: Clayton to Sykes, November 28, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3054, f. 393.
31 "I have recommended King Hussein": Wingate to War Cabinet, December 24, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3062.
32 The War Cabinet swiftly moved: Minutes to "Turkish Intrigues in Arabia," December 26, 1917; PRO-FO 371/3062, File 243033.
33 Over the coming months: Great historical confusion has arisen from the fact that there were two Turkish leaders in Syria known by the honorific Djemal Pasha. These were Ahmed Djemal Pasha (also sometimes denoted as "the Greater"), the Syrian governor-general, and Mehmet Djemal Pasha (sometimes denoted as Kucuk, or "the Lesser"). Not at all helping matters, Mehmet Djemal adopted the Djemal Pasha honorific upon a.s.suming command of the Turkish Fourth Army in early 1918, the same command that Ahmed Djemal had just vacated. T. E. Lawrence further added to this confusion by frequently referring to "Djemal Pasha" in Seven Pillars, without specifying whether he was talking about Ahmed or Mehmet.
As a result, most histories of the period mistakenly conjoin the two men as one, and thereby state that Faisal Hussein maintained a secret correspondence with Ahmed Djemal into the summer of 1918. In actuality, while Ahmed Djemal initiated the Turkish overture to Faisal in November 1917, all communication between them appears to have ended with Ahmed"s recall to Constantinople the following month; Faisal"s subsequent correspondence was with Mehmet Djemal.
Also, in both Seven Pillars and statements he made to his contemporary biographers, Lawrence claimed that Faisal maintained a separate negotiating correspondence with Turkish general Mustafa Kemal, the future Kemal Ataturk. While that may have been the case, I have found no doc.u.mentary evidence to support this claim.
34 "By suitably guarded phrases": Lawrence, Seven Pillars (Oxford), chapter 115.
35 Thus, the account in the 1922: Lawrence, Seven Pillars (Oxford), chapter 115, and Lawrence, Seven Pillars (1926), p. 554.
36 "All is fair": Lawrence to Yale, October 22, 1929; YU, Box 1, Folder 4. Curiously, Lawrence a.s.serted to Yale that he had played no authorial role in Faisal"s correspondence with Mehmet Djemal, claiming that he learned of it and read the various exchanges "unbeknownst" to Faisal. This is contradicted both by statements Lawrence made to others, and by his own account in Seven Pillars.
37 It was also necessary: Aaronsohn to Weizmann, December 13, 1917; ZY.