THE PATTERN OF IMPERIALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Hanighen, Frank C.
The Pattern Of Imperialism In The Middle East By FRANK C. HANIGHEN ON' all continents, the British Empire is in conflict with the law of change. But nowhere is this situation so acute as in the...
...It would involve delicate American adjustment to the interests of both Russia and Britain, as well as others...
...British imperial policy, therefore, did not suffer from clashes between ruling and native populations...
...Even Ibn Saud, the most resistant to Western influence of all the Arabs, is reported to be negotiating with the United States for an American mission to build airfields and to train his army...
...Shortly after the war, the various interests demanded payment on these contradictory promises...
...and the wells have already started pumping...
...Today, its conservative hegemony over that area is challenged by five highly dynamic factors, as follows: 1. American petroleum interests have acquired a stake in what may prove to be the greatest oil pool in the world...
...Indeed, the United States may become the active agent of Western industrial civilization in transforming this area...
...Britain has looked benevolently on the development of the Arab League (composed of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Transjordania...
...The Jews carried colonization farther than the French...
...To keep the Turks from the Suez Canal, Britain sent not only armies but diplomats...
...With planters went troops—and bloody disorders...
...For...
...and the Near East crisis, today at its height, had commenced...
...The present Russo-Turkish negotiations, which involve, among other things, control of the Dardanelles, thereby arouse the traditional British concern about this strategic waterway...
...If this appears likely, the British may decide to accept the inevitable end of their "non-development" policy and try to shape American activities by "cutting the Americans in" on the Near Eastern riches...
...This is, indeed, a portent for the British status quo...
...A desperate French Empire risks destroying the whole Near Eastern setup to maintain a toe hold in the Levant States...
...British oil strategy has been to earmark these fields as a reserve for the remote future and meanwhile to draw on ifce United States, Venezuela, Mexico, etc...
...Big American refineries are rising on the Persian Gulf and Americans are talking of a new pipe line to span the Arabian peninsula...
...What the Arabs hear of Russian totalitarian methods is not reassuring...
...breach in the traditional wilderness barrier between Russia and the Red Sea was made when Americans drove roads and extended railroads from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea in order to expedite lend-lease shipments for Russia...
...This effort represents revolutionary change in a region asleep for centuries...
...While Russia has not entered Araby, its proximity and intentions inspire lively apprehensions among the Arabs...
...So also are British colonial methods...
...But the Arab of today holds a threat to the British non-development policy...
...Britain, instead of protecting these interests by building railways, roads, canals, and industrial plants, chose to keep this region from the covetous hands of other powers by leaving it undeveloped—a waste of sand and desert...
...In this attitude...
...This happy situation prevailed until World War I when Turkey fought with the Central Powers against Britain and her allies...
...Having enjoyed a taste of the fruits of modernization, the Arab now looks towards thorough industrialization of his land...
...Since Zionism calls for mass immigration into Palestine, some 400,000 Jews have settled there since 1919, doing a magnificent job of building farms, factories, cities and generally modernizing the area—all in the belief that they were establishing a Jewish State...
...FRENCH imperial methods—which tend to be direct, rather than indirect—disturbed the British peace...
...In the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Britain won the support of Jews by seeming to pledge creation of a Jewish State in Palestine...
...Moscow recently decreed the union of the Shi-ite and Sunni sects of Islam in Russian territory—as drastic a move as if President Truman had ordered the union of the Catholic and Protestant Churches...
...Outside of the Dominion, comparatively few Britons settled in colonial areas...
...For the United States to accept such a role would be a decision of grave importance...
...Frenchmen often settle as planters, business men and generally in close contact with natives...
...Pax Britannica did indeed mean comparative peace in the Near East for many decades...
...In other words, the Suez Canal rested safely for decades behind a wall of undeveloped space...
...As for the oil companies, Britain saw to it that the extraction of petroleum remained at a comparatively low level...
...2. Jews all over the world are trying to convert Palestine, adjacent (o the vital Suez Canal, into a modern Jewish National State...
...If, instead of the Jews, 400,000 Spanish or Germans had settled in Palestine to rule it, much the same sort of conflict probably would have ensued...
...Russia, here as elsewhere, is expanding her power...
...American "push" may take the ball from the deliberate British and remove the wilderness which has traditionally protected the Suez Canal...
...and Arab capitals anxiously watch the course of Russo-Turkish relations...
...On the political plane, a few British "advisers" (like Colonel Lawrence) guided local native chiefs in policies consonant with those of the Empire...
...4. The Arabs are organizing an Arab federation in this area, regardless of British, French or Jewish interests...
...Friction between Arabs and Jews has arisen from the Arab objection to the Jewish ambition to rule Palestine, and from mass contact between the two races...
...Such ventures must inevitably bring other features, such as railroads, motor roads, airfields, factories...
...The great British commercial empire was carried on by a relatively small number of Britons scattered here and there in trading houses, mines and banks...
...In short, both colonial techniques and conservation strategy conspired to keep a minimum of friction between natives and British...
...One after another, these hammer blows fall with resounding effect on the base of a British structure of the most curious design...
...This oil strategy is part of the non-development policy...
...Before Washington commits this country to an important share in Near East responsibilities, it might be wise to hold a Near East conference, in which all the elements involved could come to a frant and peaceful understanding...
...British diplomats have no doubt sought to guide the League's policies, if not to control them, in the interests of the Empire...
...The British Empire has used the Near East as a protective shield for its life line to the East, by a sedulous policy of non-development...
...paradoxically, Britain has exploited the Near East for the past half century by not exploiting it...
...Before the recent Jewish immigration, there were good relations between the Arabs and the Jews who had lived there for thousands of years...
...5. Finally, the shadow of Soviet Russia falls athwart this complicated picture...
...and (21 preservation of British oil interests in Iran and Iraq...
...Soviet troops have occupied the northern provinces of Iran...
...IN face of these varied threats to her sphere, Britain has sought to conciliate the Arabs...
...There British imperialism is static, per excellence...
...Finally, to persuade Arabs to revolt against Turkish rulers, Britain promised Arab independence (including Palestine...
...BRITAIN has 2 traditional interests in the Near East: (1) maintenance of its life line to the East...
...It is reported, for instance, that only a half-dozen wells are pumping in the rich Iraq fields...
...The United States .stands on the verge of a great imperialist venture which may involve us in tne military defense of that area and may force a reversal of British imperial strategy...
...Thus the United States would acquire a big political, as well as economic, stake in this area...
...A wilderness offers one of the best barriers to modern armies...
...But nowhere is this situation so acute as in the Near East...
...Thus, Britain signed the Sykes-Picot Treaty, recognizing French interests in the Levant...
...French planters literally cracking the whip over native laborers arouse more friction than does a British Resident}discreetly counselling a sheik...
...The latter, in their desire to take no chances, proved rather generous in their promises...
...The Arab is not "anti-Jewish," in the Western sense, of the word...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 32
