{{Short description|Department of British Intelligence in Cairo during the First World War}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use British English|date=December 2014}} [[File:Arab Bureau terms of reference January 1916.jpg|thumb|Arab Bureau terms of reference at the Interdepartmental meeting for establishment of the Bureau, 7 January 1916]] [[File:T.E. Lawrence; D.G. Hogarth; Lt. Col. Dawnay.jpg|thumbnail|Lieutenant-Colonel [[T. E. Lawrence|Thomas Edward Lawrence]] (Lawrence of Arabia) (1888 - 1935, left); [[David George Hogarth]] (1862 - 1927) and Lieutenant-Colonel [[Guy Dawnay (British Army officer)|Dawnay]] (1878-1952), at the Arab Bureau of Britain's Foreign Office, Cairo, May 1918.]]
The '''Arab Bureau''' was a section of the [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|Cairo Intelligence Department]] established in 1916 during the [[World War I|First World War]], and closed in 1920, whose purpose was the collection and dissemination of [[propaganda]] and intelligence about the Arab regions of the [[Middle East]].<ref name="Westratepxii">Westrate, p.xii</ref>
According to a [[Committee of Imperial Defence]] paper from 7 January 1916, the Arab Bureau was established to "harmonise British political activity in the [[Near East]]...[and] keep the [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|Foreign Office]], the [[India Office]], the Committee of Defence, the [[War Office]], the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]], and [[British Raj|Government of India]] simultaneously informed of the general tendency of Germano-Turkish Policy."<ref>Committee of Defence Paper, "Establishment of an Arab Bureau in Cairo", 7 January 1916, FO882/2 ArB/16/4, quoted in Polly Mohs, ''Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt'' (New York, 2008) p. 34.</ref>
Bruce Westrate wrote in his 1992 history of the Arab Bureau that "the agency has subsequently borne much of the blame for Britain's terrible mishandling of Middle Eastern policy during and shortly after World War I."<ref name="Westratepxii" />
==History== ===Beginnings=== It was constituted on the initiative of [[Mark Sykes]] who, in December 1915, reported to [[London]] that, in a recent tour of the [[Middle East]] from [[Egypt]] to [[India]], he had discovered that the German and Turkish Governments were widely distributing anti-British wartime [[propaganda]] that countered British efforts and action in the Middle East. Sykes was concerned because British command posts in the Middle East were generally uncooperative and thus far unable to produce effective [[counterpropaganda]]. Sykes proposed the creation of a London office under his auspices to gather, filter, and distribute [[intelligence assessment|intelligence]] on the German and Turkish Middle East policy and "co-ordinate propaganda in favour of the [[United Kingdom]] among non-Indian [[Muslims|Moslems]]."<ref>Memorandum by Sykes, 23 December 1915, British Foreign Office 882/2 ARB/15/4, fos 1-14. quoted in Polly Mohs, ''Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt'' (New York, 2008), p. 33.</ref>
===Support=== Sykes' proposal was welcomed by [[Gilbert Clayton]], the director of civilian and military intelligence in Egypt and Sudan. Clayton believed that such an office might not only discover and counter enemy propaganda but be capable of overseeing a wider collection of political and military information regarding the Middle East and in turn produce easily understood reports to inform policymaking in [[Cairo]] and London toward the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Arabian Peninsula|Arab territories]].<ref>Polly Mohs, ''Military Intelligence in the Arab Revolt'', (New York, 2008), p. 34.</ref>
===Opposition=== Clayton's preference for locating the Arab Bureau in Cairo met with resistance from the Indian Government (under the Viceroy [[Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst|Charles Hardinge]]) and the India Office (under the Secretary of State for India, [[Austen Chamberlain]]), who did not want interference in their control of territories around the [[Persian Gulf]] and particularly the [[Iraq]] provinces that they planned to occupy and cultivate for [[grain]] production for India. Newly discovered [[oil field|oil deposits]] located around the North Gulf brought further attention to the region. But the director of [[Naval Intelligence Division (United Kingdom)|Naval Intelligence]] in Britain, [[Reginald Hall|Captain Reginald 'Blinker' Hall]], supported Clayton's concept and urged government approval.
===Establishment=== The result was a compromise. In January 1916, the Arab Bureau was established as a section of Sudan Intelligence in Cairo, ultimately answering to the [[List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Egypt|High Commissioner in Egypt]] ([[Henry McMahon]]) who in turn was overseen by the [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|Foreign Office]] and the [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]] ([[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Edward Grey]]) in London. It was staffed by Middle East experts from military intelligence, Egypt Force who shared Clayton's outlook.<ref>Polly Mohs, ''Military Intelligence in the Arab Revolt'', (New York, 2008), pp. 34–36.</ref>
===Closure=== [[Arnold Wilson]] later wrote that: <blockquote>The Arab Bureau in Cairo died unregretted in 1920, having helped to induce His Majesty's Government to adopt a policy which brought disaster to the people of Syria, disillusionment to the Arabs of Palestine and ruin to the Hijaz.<ref name="Kent2005">{{cite book|last=Kent|first=Marian|title=The Great Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gc-PAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA180|date=27 July 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-77800-2|pages=180–}}</ref><ref name="Westrate2010">{{cite book|last=Westrate|first=Bruce C.|title=Arab Bureau: British Policy in the Middle East, 1916–1920|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64EQQ1ARYGoC|date=1 November 2010|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=978-0-271-04009-7}}</ref></blockquote>
==Staff== {{see also|Category:Arab Bureau officers}}
[[Gilbert Clayton]] was named head or "chief" of the Arab Bureau. [[David George Hogarth|David Hogarth]], a [[Military intelligence|naval intelligence]] officer, was acting director of the Arab Bureau and [[Kinahan Cornwallis]] his deputy. [[Herbert Garland]], [[George Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd|George Ambrose Lloyd]], [[Stewart Symes|George Stewart Symes]], [[Philip Graves]], [[Gertrude Bell]], [[Aubrey Herbert]], [[William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech|William Ormsby-Gore]], [[T. E. Lawrence|Thomas Edward Lawrence]], [[Alfred Guillaume]] and [[Tracy Philipps]] were also part of the Arab Bureau.
In 1920, Garland was appointed director, under High Commissioner to Egypt [[Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby|Lord Allenby]].<ref name="AEM">{{cite book|last1=Garland|first1=Herbert|last2=Bannister|first2=C. O.|title=Ancient Egyptian Metallurgy|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientegyptianm00garl|year=1927|publisher=Charles Griffin & Company}}</ref>
== References == <references/>
== Bibliography == * ''[[A Peace to End All Peace]]'', [[David Fromkin]], Avon Books, New York, 1990. * '' Arabian Personalities of the Early Twentieth Century with a new Introduction by [[Robin Leonard Bidwell|Robin Bidwell]]'' (reprints from Bureau's'' Handbooks'') The Oleander Press 1986, {{ISBN|0-906672-39-2}}. * '' Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War'', Polly Mohs, Routledge, New York, 2008. * '' The Arab Bureau'', Bruce Westrate, Penn State Press, 1992.
==External links== *Seikaly, Samir: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/arab_bureau/ Arab Bureau], in: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/home.html/ 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War].
[[Category:Middle Eastern theatre of World War I]] [[Category:Defunct United Kingdom intelligence agencies]] [[Category:British propaganda organisations]]