From the Nile to Arabia: a legacy of Empire - Part One

Given his pivotal role in some of the most significant military and imperial projects of the early 20th century, it is reasonable to surmise that Stewart Newcombe would be profoundly disheartened by the contemporary realities facing Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo - regions with which he was closely associated during his service. Once central to the strategic calculations of British imperial policy, these territories continue to experience not only the ravages of armed conflict but also its most devastating consequences: famine, epidemic disease, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. That such outcomes have unfolded in regions shaped in part by the geopolitical interventions of his era underscores the enduring and often tragic legacies of colonial entanglement.

His inability to successfully influence political developments in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s was a source of profound and genuine disappointment. His instrumental role in establishing the first mosque in London in the immediate post-Second World War period reflects a conscious effort to redress, at least in part, what he perceived as unfulfilled commitments made to the Arab world on behalf of Great Britain during the First World War. In the following essay (to be published in three parts) I will examine how the enduring historical and political legacy of empire unfolded throughout his career from the Nile to Arabia, revealing a complex interplay between colonial ambitions, personal conviction, and the shifting geopolitical landscape.

PART ONE: The Lado Enclave and the Congo Frontier

In the summer of 1907, Captain Newcombe was already an experienced British military surveyor and intelligence officer when his work became deeply intertwined with the geopolitics of the Upper Nile Valley, Sudan, and, by extension, Belgian ambitions in the Lado Enclave and the Congo. This occurred at a time when Britain was seeking to consolidate its authority in Sudan and Uganda following the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of Sudan in 1898.

During this same period, the Congo Free State under King Leopold II exemplified the brutal extremes of imperial power, with the systematic mutilation of Congolese people—including the cutting off of hands to enforce rubber quotas—and an estimated 10 to 15 million deaths from violence, disease, and famine, providing a stark illustration of the human cost of imperial ambition.

Listen to the yell of Leopold’s ghost

Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.

Hear how the demons chuckle and yell

Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.

VACHEL LINDSAY

Newcombe’s mapping efforts were not purely cartographic exercises; rather, they were tightly interwoven with imperial strategy. In an era where territorial claims were often legitimised through scientific exploration and mapping, his surveys helped establish clear geographic knowledge of contested regions, thereby supporting British legal and military claims. The data he produced informed both logistical planning for the Uganda Railway and military operations along key routes between Uganda and Khartoum. These transport corridors were vital to British ambitions of linking southern and northern parts of the empire via the so-called "Cape to Cairo" route, while simultaneously countering rival infrastructure projects.

One of the primary strategic concerns during this period was the Belgian presence in the Upper Nile, particularly through King Leopold’s Lado Enclave Project (1894–1910). The enclave represented an attempt by Leopold’s Congo Free State to gain access to the Nile River system, thus threatening British control of a region considered essential to the economic and political security of Egypt and the wider British Empire. Belgian military agents and surveyors began operating in areas around the Bahr el Jebel, prompting a robust British response.

King Leopold II of Belgian

Leopold’s dream was to construct a railway from the frontier of the CFS to the Nile near the town of Lado. To assist in its viability, Newcombe was attached to an Anglo-Belgian commission along with Dr T.C. Mackenzie (RAMC) and Lieutenant R. Micklem, R.E. of the Sudan Government Railways; and with Count Olaerts, Major Charles Lemaire and Messrs. Slosse and Wegdard representing the Belgians. After preparations were completed the team departed south by river steamer on 15 February 1907. They were tasked with what became a gruelling reconnaissance survey from Lado heading south-west through Baka to the Congo frontier. The result of Newcombe’s preliminary reconnaissance proved at odds with what had been agreed with the Belgian delegation back in Brussels who expected a detailed railway survey from which they could choose the most suitable line. However, Newcombe’s personal assessment provided the British government with the geographic intelligence necessary to monitor the King’s future aspirations and counter potential encroachments. The survey was only halted when heavy rain and crippling bouts of malaria forced them to give up.

Newcombe and the Anglo-Belgian Commission to the Lado

More broadly, Newcombe's work supported the British goal of maintaining what scholars have termed the "hydraulic empire" - the ambition to command the entire length of the Nile, thereby ensuring control over the irrigation systems critical to Egypt’s agrarian economy. The notion of total Nile control was not merely symbolic; it had real strategic value, particularly in deterring foreign influence and ensuring the security of the Suez Canal, Britain's gateway to India.

In addition to his surveying work, Newcombe’s missions had a significant military intelligence dimension. His reconnaissance efforts allowed British forces to identify key terrain features, strategic passes, and potential infrastructure corridors, especially in regions bordering the Congo Free State. This information was crucial not only for defence planning but also for pre-empting any Belgian attempts to establish permanent links - through rail or river - between the Congo basin and the Nile Valley. In this context, Newcombe’s work was closely connected to the broader British strategy of geopolitical containment, aimed at limiting both French expansion (as seen in the Fashoda Crisis of 1898) and Belgian penetration into East Africa.

The legacy of Newcombe’s work is significant. His surveys helped define imperial boundaries and provided the foundation for colonial administration and infrastructure development, bolstering British claims to Uganda, South Sudan, and much of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In doing so, they reinforced Britain’s territorial grip on the Nile corridor. More than a technical exercise, his mapping served as a tool of imperial consolidation, aligning geography with Britain’s strategic and economic interests. Positioned at the intersection of cartography, military intelligence, and colonial state-building, his work exemplifies how ostensibly neutral disciplines became instruments in the forging of empire.

The Congo Free State became the Belgian Congo in 1908 on the death of King Leopold, and after gaining independence in 1960 became the Democratic Republic of Congo (officially Zaire). Since then, the country has been gripped by post-colonial power struggles, as ethnic tensions, political rivalries, corruption, and battles over natural wealth have fuelled decades of conflict.

Neighbouring states, particularly Rwanda and Uganda, have significantly shaped the trajectory of conflict in the DRC through their support for armed groups and direct military interventions motivated by political, economic, and security interests. The 1994 Rwandan genocide against Tutsi, moderate Hutu, and Twa communities had profound repercussions in eastern DRC, catalysing two major wars: the First Congo War (1996–1997) and the Second Congo War (1998–2003). Often termed 'Africa’s World War,' these conflicts drew in multiple African states and non-state actors, underscoring the transnational dimensions of violence in the region. This constant state of warfare since 1996 has resulted in 6 million deaths.  

As of 2025, the DRC continues to endure one of the most complex and devastating crises in the world, marked by escalating violence, mass atrocities, and a deepening humanitarian emergency. The ongoing conflict, particularly in the eastern regions, has triggered widespread displacement, extreme food insecurity, and prompted growing calls for international recognition of the scale and nature of these crimes. Together, these developments have created a multifaceted emergency with profound political and humanitarian implications.

In recent years, violence in eastern DRC has intensified dramatically, reflecting not only the entrenched brutality of the region’s armed conflicts but also an alarming trend of ethnic targeting and large-scale killing that increasingly bears the hallmarks of genocide.

Famine and Food Insecurity

Alongside the violence, the DRC is experiencing a worsening food crisis. According to the World Food Programme, more than 28 million people - over one-quarter of the country’s population - are now facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or higher), with nearly 4 million classified at emergency levels (Phase 4). This represents one of the largest food crises globally and is a direct consequence of the ongoing conflict, which continues to disrupt agricultural production, trade routes, and humanitarian access.

The food crisis is not merely a by-product of natural conditions or economic mismanagement; it is deeply conflict-driven. In areas where fighting is most intense, humanitarian agencies face enormous challenges in delivering aid. The collapse of basic infrastructure, combined with insecurity and a lack of political coordination, has created a humanitarian emergency of immense scale.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo stands at a critical juncture. The combination of systematic violence, state weakness, and economic exploitation has produced a humanitarian catastrophe that many argue meets the threshold for genocide. At the same time, famine threatens millions, particularly in areas directly affected by conflict and displacement.

While international attention has often focused on more prominent global crises, the situation in the DRC demands urgent and sustained response. Recognition of the atrocities as genocide would not only have moral weight but could trigger stronger mechanisms for accountability and protection under international law. Likewise, addressing the famine requires immediate scaling up of aid, security guarantees for humanitarian operations, and longer-term efforts to stabilize the region.

Without meaningful intervention, the twin crises of genocide and famine in the Congo threaten to become among the most devastating yet under-recognised human tragedies of the 21st century.

From the vantage point of Newcombe’s experiences, he would not be surprised that, of the three countries discussed in this essay - Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo - it is the Congo whose present crisis most clearly reflects its colonial past. The brutality of King Leopold II’s rule, with its vast death toll and systematic mutilations, created a state built on extraction rather than governance. Belgium’s later administration did little to reverse these structural weaknesses, leaving behind fragile institutions that collapsed after independence. For Newcombe, the Congo might have appeared as the starkest example of how colonial exploitation, rather than ending with empire, could perpetuate cycles of crisis for generations.

NEXT - PART TWO:

- Defining Genocide

- Israel, Gaza and the Question of Genocide: A Legal, Historical, and Political Analysis

THE LONG ROAD TO COLLECTIVE DISPOSSESSION – PART ONE

The following essay examines the four main British-backed negotiations or agreements produced during WW1 that ultimately led to the 1948 founding of the State of Israel and the event known to the Palestinians as the Nakba, or the catastrophe. Special attention is given to Stewart Newcombe’s twin dilemma: his efforts to find a long-term solution that would satisfy the needs of both the Arab and Jewish people while also fulfilling his obligation to safeguard British interests.

As of today (18 November 2023), we are witnessing what is in danger of becoming the second Nakba for the Palestinians following the forced evacuation of 1.5 million citizens of northern Gaza to the south during Israel’s war on Hamas. In an update to my previous post dated 7 November 2023 Newcombe and the Palestinians, Israel has revised the official death toll of its citizens killed during the Hamas attack on 7 October down from 1400 to 1200 (comprising over 800 Israeli and foreign national civilians, along with over 350 army and police personnel). As of 19 November 2023, a conservative estimate of Palestinians killed during Israel’s bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza stands at more than 11,000, the majority being women and children. The final figure will likely increase due to preventable death from disease and infant mortality. An unknown number of casualties (estimated at 2,700) remain undiscovered under the rubble of the ruined city.

The following framework of pledges and agreements made during World War One clearly demonstrates the diplomatic twists and turns that has led to the present dark chapter in the history of the region and its people, as well as Great Britain's role in it. These are:

1. THE McMAHON-HUSSEIN CORRESPONDENCE 1915- 1916

2. THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT - May 1916

3. THE BALFOUR DECLARATION 1917

4. THE DECLARATION TO THE SEVEN - 16 July 1918

Prior to the start of the war, both Stewart Newcombe and T.E. Lawrence carried out extensive exploration of Greater Syria, and Palestine in particular; Newcombe as a Royal Engineer officer extending Kitchener’s survey of Palestine south of Beersheba and into the Sinai, and Lawrence in search of Crusader Castles and later as an archaeologist at Carchemish with Leonard Woolley. It was at a camp south of Beersheba that both archaeologists first met Newcombe in order to provide cover to the secret military survey that was being conducted under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund by several teams in an area known as the Wilderness of Zin. Lawrence was quick to realise why they were there: “We are obviously only meant as red herrings, to give an archaeological colour to a political job.”

For the most part, their experience of the Biblical landscape was fixed in the present, i.e., in daily relations with an Arab Muslim majority population. Newcombe’s pre-war reports contain detailed assessments of the various Arab and Kurdish tribes and their allegiances or potential for obstructing British imperial aims. Jewish colonies were at this time largely on the periphery of his experience, whether indigenous Palestinian Jews speaking Arabic or early Zionist settlers speaking Yiddish.

Although estimates vary, a variety of sources suggest that approximately 657,000 Muslim Arabs, 81,000 Christian Arabs, and 59,000 Jews made up Ottoman Palestine's population in 1914, the year of Newcombe's survey. During the war, the government deported a large number of Jews who were foreign citizens, and some Jews left Palestine after being offered the choice to become Ottoman citizens. In this way, by December 1915, about 14% of the Jewish population had departed.

Despite Newcombe's long association with the Palestine Exploration Fund, whose founding principles were based on the archaeological exploration of Palestine as a way of ground-truthing a Biblical narrative, he readily acknowledged the demographic status quo that existed at the time of his surveys, namely a majority Muslim population with a leadership aiming for self-determination after the end of Ottoman rule. While the study of the historical landscape had its place in the survey, his relationships with Arab chiefs, tribal confederations and Turkish officials during this period were clearly more relevant to the aims of his covert military mission, which were to map previously unchartered regions to help defend the lifelines of the British Empire, as well as surveying future battlefields on which he and Lawrence would later fight. His secret reports to the British Embassy in Constantinople show that he was more concerned with Arab nationalist issues than observing a Jewish renaissance.

THE WAR YEARS

At the start of the war, Lawrence worked under Newcombe’s direction in Military Intelligence for nine months in Cairo where they gathered information on Turkish troop dispositions and movements and monitored the potential for an Arab uprising in Syria, and the Arabian peninsula.

1. THE McMAHON-HUSSEIN CORRESPONDENCE 1915- 1916

Between July 1915 and March 1916, Britain had given assurances to the Sharif of Mecca in what became known as the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence (July 1915 to March 1916), a series of ten letters exchanged during World War I between Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner to Egypt, and Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, agreeing to recognize an independent Arab state in the region that was then under Ottoman rule in exchange for Hussein launching the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

The need for such an agreement from the British perspective was partly Arab assistance in the fight against the Turks, but more importantly as a counter to the prospect of an Ottoman call for jihad, or holy war, as well as securing the continued backing of the millions of Muslims in British Indian, where many were supporting the Allies by serving in the Indian Army. The letters remain significant for their role in shaping the future political landscape of the Middle East and the understanding of British promises to various Arab leaders during the war.

However, the exchange of letters was conducted with a degree of ambiguity and left certain key terms, such as the boundaries of the proposed Arab state, open to interpretation. This later led to disputes and conflicting claims about the promises made.

This ambiguity later contributed to the disagreements between the promises made to the Arabs during the war and the agreements and pledges that came into effect afterwards, particularly the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration, both of which seemed to contradict the spirit of the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence.

Labels such as ‘Perfidious Albion’ are often applied by historians in the light of evidence from the very same author of the British promises who did not believe in the strength of his own proposals. In a private letter to India’s Viceroy Charles Hardinge sent on 4 December 1915, McMahon expressed a somewhat different view of what the future of Arabia would be, contrary to what he had led Sherif Hussein to believe:

[I do not take] the idea of a future strong united independent Arab State ... too seriously ... the conditions of Arabia do not and will not for a very long time to come, lend themselves to such a thing ... I do not for one moment go to the length of imagining that the present negotiations will go far to shape the future form of Arabia or to either establish our rights or to bind our hands in that country. The situation and its elements are much too nebulous for that. What we have to arrive at now is to tempt the Arab people into the right path, detach them from the enemy and bring them on to our side. This on our part is at present largely a matter of words, and to succeed we must use persuasive terms and abstain from academic haggling over conditions—whether about Baghdad or elsewhere.

Lawrence saw things differently. “I had dreamed, at the City School of Oxford, of hustling into form, while I lived, the new Asia which time was inexorably bringing upon us. Mecca was to lead to Damascus; Damascus to Anatolia, and afterwards to Baghdad; and then there was Yemen.”

Lawrence had dreamed big, and the results of his efforts would torment him for the rest of his life. But even Newcombe was not immune from the knowledge that he had deceived the Arabs. Arnold Lawrence, (T.E.’s brother) wrote to Jeremy Wilson, Lawrence’s authorised biographer, in August 1971: “Newcombe’s feeling of guilt persisted to the end of his life and kept him constantly active in furthering Arab political aims.”

The secret Hussein-McMahon Correspondence was a pivotal episode within the historical context of the Middle East, shaping the scepticism throughout the political landscape of the region, and highlighting the discrepancy between the promises made and the geopolitical realities that unfolded after the war.

Towards the end of 1915 there was an unexpected announcement within closed government circles that rang alarm bells in Cairo as it threatened to cast aside Anglo-Arab discussions relating to the aspirations for national self-determination coming from Arab leaders in Syria, the Hejaz and Yemen. Following recommendations from the De Bunsen Committee, a British Government report on present and future relations with the Ottomans, secret negotiations between the British and the French had begun to work towards an agreement on a post-war division of the spoils within greater Syria and Turkey. With discussions between Cairo and Sherif Hussein well under way it was decided that the negotiations between the British and the French must for now be kept secret.

2. THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT - May 1916

Enter Sir Mark Sykes of Great Britain and Francois Georges-Picot of France. With an eye on the prize, a secret agreement was drawn up to divide the Ottoman Empire's territories in the Middle East after the war's end between their respective countries.

Named after its negotiators, the agreement established spheres of influence and control in the Middle East for these two European powers. The agreement essentially aimed to split the region into areas of control, mainly to secure their strategic interests and prevent conflict between themselves over these territories.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement designated various zones of control, which were divided into areas of direct and indirect influence for both countries within modern-day countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. However, it is essential to note that the implementation of the agreement was significantly altered by subsequent developments, such as the Balfour Declaration and the eventual collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The Agreement has had a lasting impact on the Middle East, contributing to the drawing of borders that often ignored local ethnic, religious, and tribal divisions. It's seen by many as a prime example of the arbitrary division of territories by colonial powers, often cited for the problems and conflicts in the region that persist to this day. Sykes-Picot remains crucial in understanding the ideology (at least as depicted through its propaganda) of the Islamic State (IS) militant group. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was described by IS as "the breaker of barriers", reinforcing the sentiment that Sykes-Picot was a symbol of foreign interference.

The reality, however, is far more nuanced. One could argue that the agreements made at the 1920 San Remo Conference -- attended by leaders from Britain, France, Italy, and Japan -- rather than the Sykes-Picot agreement, are ultimately responsible for the internal borders of many Middle Eastern countries we know today. Sykes and Picot wielded a broad brush in creating the post-war colonial framework of countries out of the old Ottoman Empire; the current geopolitical borders were established over a longer period of time, a process that had a great deal to do with regional power struggles, rather than any foreign imperial meddling.

3. THE BALFOUR DECLARATION 1917

Whereby “One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”

On the 2 November 1917, Arthur James Balfour, the United Kingdom's foreign secretary in Lloyd George's new administration, sent the following declaration to Lord Rothschild, a leading member of the British Jewish community:

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of his Majesty's government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionists aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

As a response to various factors, including lobbying efforts by the Zionist movement and considerations of British imperial interests during World War I, the British government saw strategic advantages in issuing the declaration.

Lord Rothschild was seen as a liaison and representative of the Jewish community, and his involvement in the process was crucial. He worked closely with Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader, to advocate for British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration, in part, aimed to win Jewish support for the Allies in World War I and to gain favour among influential Jewish communities, particularly in the United States and Russia. Britain also had considerable strategic interests in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region, in Egypt and the Suez Canal in particular, and an advantage was sought through the declaration in securing control over these territories in any post-war settlement.

This simple statement of intent from the British government, whereby “one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third,” as one leading Jewish intellectual put it (Arthur Koestler), was at the heart of the Zionists’ hopes of creating a political homeland. With its announcement coming as the Allies pushed north through Palestine towards the prize of Jerusalem ‘by Christmas’, the hopes of Zionism lay in a total defeat of the German-backed Ottomans and with Palestine coming under a British mandate or protectorate.

Despite reservations, Stewart Newcombe, operating alongside T.E. Lawrence with Sherif Feisal’s men in the Hejaz, accepted the document with all its stipulations, in particular those that respected the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. After all, this declaration had not just been conjured up in the mind of the British foreign secretary on a whim. Behind the scenes, Zionist leaders Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow and British minister Sir Mark Sykes had been shuttling between allies to secure a common agreement. Sokolow was especially successful in obtaining the Cambon Letter of agreement from France, which ignored the rights of non-Jews, and the support from Pope Benedict XV as the Vatican controlled many of the Christian holy sites in Palestine. His relations with Louis D. Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice under President Wilson, secured support from the USA. With the Allies standing by Britain’s side, Balfour issued his government’s declaration with confidence. Despite his personal reservations, Newcombe was duty bound to accept his government's pledge to the Zionists and to work within its framework.

While consensus for the declaration on a Jewish homeland was being sought around the world, discussions of a contradictory nature continued to be made between the British and the French causing considerable tension in the dealings between British officers and Arab leaders in the Hejaz.

ATTITUDE OF THE BRITISH OFFICERS

The mental agility involved in keeping all the pieces in play was stressful to most of the British officers working with the Arabs. Mark Sykes’ arrival in the Hejaz in May 1917 to sound out his ‘proposals’ with Feisal and Sherif Hussein was an alarming development, especially as his proposal to carve up the region had already been agreed with Francois Georges-Picot, the French representative. Following on the heels of General Murray's failure to break the Turkish line at the First Battle of Gaza, Sykes adopted a policy of deception and was especially careful not to give away details of the division of the spoils lest it threaten Arab cooperation. Within the agreement, Palestine, always the stumbling block, was designated to be governed by an international administration. Sykes felt well satisfied until someone pointed out that the Jews might have a very strong interest in the future of the country and could oppose any agreement or promises. This came as somewhat of a surprise to Sykes who until that moment had not considered the Jews in his deliberations.

Newcombe shared Lawrence’s distress and felt they were being manipulated or exploited by Sykes and Picot. He summed up the feeling when he wrote that Sykes must return and openly and honestly deal with Hussein and his sons, “otherwise we are hoodwinking the Sherif and his people and playing a very false game in which officers attached to the Sherif’s army are inevitably committed and which I know causes anxiety in several officers’ minds: in case we let them down.” Another officer, Colonel Wilson went further: “Is the Sherif living in a fools’ paradise?” he wrote. “If so he will have a very rude awakening and once his trust in Great Britain has gone we will not get it back again.”

In Newcombe’s mind the solution was simple: “…he [Faisal] must have a political propaganda which will induce the people to risk their lives. It must be a clear statement, showing that they will be fighting for an Arab Government.”

Lawrence’s anguish was compounded by the fact that he was about to depart on the Aqaba expedition just two days after Sykes’s visit. He would soon be compelling men to fight for freedom and self-government over land that was already assigned. Feisal remained focussed on this aim in his father’s name, but it was also well known by Lawrence and others that the Hashemites remained in secret negotiations with the Turks as an insurance policy to secure their long-term objectives.

Throughout their close association during the war, Lawrence and Newcombe remained convinced of the priority of securing Arab assistance under the leadership of the Hashemites to ‘enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey’. Newcombe was certain that had any suggestion of a Zionist movement been put forward, the Sherif would have done nothing to help the British. The Bolshevik Revolution late in 1917 was a moment of deep concern when the secret treaties of the allies were revealed to the world’s press. Lawrence’s role had just got harder. Newcombe, meanwhile, was out of the fray having got himself captured during an operation behind enemy lines at the Third Battle of Gaza.

4. THE DECLARATION TO THE SEVEN 1918

On 16 June 1918, Mark Sykes responded to a secret memorandum written by seven anonymous Syrian notables in Cairo requesting a "guarantee of the ultimate independence of Arabia".

The seven Syrians were members of the recently formed Syrian Unity Party which was established in the wake of the Balfour Declaration and the publication by the Bolsheviks of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

In what became known as The Declaration to the Seven, Sykes expressed His Majesty’s Government’s great care in considering their requests despite their anonymity which he said, “has not in any way detracted from the importance which His Majesty's Government attribute to the document.”

The areas mentioned in Sykes’ response fell into four categories and are worth setting out in full:

1. Areas in Arabia which were free and independent before the outbreak of war.
2. Areas emancipated from Turkish control by the action of the Arabs themselves during the present war.
3. Areas formerly under Ottoman dominion, occupied by the Allied forces during the present war.
4. Areas still under Turkish control.

In regard to the first two categories, Sykes stated that his government recognised “the complete and sovereign independence of the Arab inhabiting these areas and supported them in their struggle for freedom.”

In regard to the areas occupied by Allied forces, the British government drew the attention of the Seven to the texts of the proclamations issued by the General Commanding Officers following the capture of Baghdad and Jerusalem, proclamations that embodied the policy of His Majesty's Government towards the inhabitants of those regions. Namely:

“It is the wish and desire of His Majesty's Government that the future government of these regions should be based upon the principle of the consent of the governed and this policy has and will continue to have the support of His Majesty's Government.”

Sykes wrote that the government was aware, and would take into consideration, the dangers and difficulties for those who worked for the regeneration of the people in the specified regions, and that all obstacles could and will be overcome with his government’s full support.

Finally, he declared that the government was ready to examine any cooperative plan that aligned with existing military operations and consistent with the political principles of His Majesty's Government and the Allies.

Aside from private assurances and promises, the Declaration, written less than five months before the end of the war, was the first statement from the British Government to the Arabs advocating national self-determination. The Declaration was read out to the Seven on behalf of the Foreign Office by an official at the Army headquarters in Egypt and a copy was sent to Sherif Hussein. 

On the night of 30 September 1918, Lawrence and the Sherifian Arab Army were poised to enter Damascus aware that under the terms of the Declaration the Arabs had the right to establish a government over all the territory that they liberated. It is unclear who entered Damascus first but Lawrence, who had been detained by a patrol of Bengal Lancers in a mix-up over his identity, recorded the moment he finally entered the city that he had dreamed of helping to conquer since a boy in Oxford:

"The streets were nearly impassable with the crowds, who yelled themselves hoarse, danced, cut themselves with swords and daggers and fired volleys into the air. Nasir, Nuri Sha'lan, Auda abu Tayi and myself were cheered by name, covered with flowers, kissed indefinitely and splashed with attar of roses from the house-tops."

Riding his horse at the head of a large possession, Faisal later entered the town to further scenes of wild jubilation and joy. As his biographer, Ali Allawi, wrote: "The flags of the Arab Revolt were everywhere. For now, at least, the city was at his feet." After two years of hard warfare, Faisal was the undisputed leader of the Arabs of Greater Syria. The revolt had triumphed, but with immense difficulties on the horizon the battle for the heart and soul of the Arab cause had just begun. 

POST-WAR PERIOD

As agreed in the secret agreements of the Allies, the aftermath of the war saw the division of the Middle East into mandates and colonies controlled by various European powers, with the Arab territories being divided up between Britain and France. These actions led to disillusionment among the Arab population and contributed to a deep-seated mistrust of Western powers due to perceived broken promises.

Throughout his life, Newcombe continued to fight against the injustices perpetrated against the Palestinians, as shown in this letter to The Times in 1939:

Being one of the few survivors who made promises on behalf of the British Government to the Arabs in 1917, I state the facts as follows:

1. We made several promises to the Arabs: in 1915 the McMahon letters; in 1916-18 promises by leaflets dropped by aeroplanes, by speeches to prisoners of war, and by any means we could devise, to induce them to desert and rebel against their own Government: we asked them to run the risk of being hanged and to risk the lives of their families: we offered them freedom as a reward; 2,000 deserters and others joined up from Palestine alone, and were at Wadi Musa in 1918.

2. In November, 1917, we made a vague and qualified promise to the Jews, without asking the Arabs whether it contravened our promises to them.

3. On hearing of the Balfour Declaration the Arabs who were helping us by their revolt stopped fighting in December, 1917. So we sent Commander D. G. Hogarth to explain to King Hussein that the Jewish Settlement would be consistent with the economic and political freedom of the Arab people. On such conditions King Hussein accepted "Jews into an Arab House" and the Arabs went on fighting with us.

4. For some years we deluded Arabs and ourselves by saying that the National Home was “cultural and spiritual” and non-political. Had we kept to that meaning little trouble would have occurred.

It would be very desirable, from the point of view of honour, that all these various pledges should be set out, side by side, and then consider what is the fair thing to be done. This is all that the Arabs ask…

For the rest of his life, Newcombe maintained strong views on what he considered were acceptable levels of Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine in the years between the World Wars, based on his long study of the region, its people, infrastructure and resources. Believing the Arabs of Palestine would not vanish like the mist before the sun of Zion he therefore thought it imperative they had fair representation in the contest for the hearts and minds of those in power who would ultimately bring about the fulfillment of the Balfour Declaration, with all its stipulations – important provisos which supported his firm belief that only by respecting native interests could you achieve a lasting consensus. He worked tirelessly towards that aim after consulting the opinions of his many Jewish and Moslem friends before reaching proposals for what might be termed a bi-nation state solution. His convictions, once reached, never wavered.

In Part Two I will explore Newcombe’s role in delimiting the boundaries of Palestine and Lebanon, his role as the Honorary Secretary of the Palestine Information Centre in London, his collaboration with Albert Hyamson in seeking a just and sustainable future for both Arabs and Jews in Palestine, known as the Hyamson-Newcombe Proposal, his work with Hyamson and others in drawing up a Constitution for Palestine, and perhaps his most fitting legacy to his Muslim friends, that of helping to establish the first purpose built mosque in London.

NEWCOMBE AND THE PALESTINIANS

‘I am angry with myself for not being able to do more’.

STEWART FRANCIS NEWCOMBE

 

‘Newcombe’s feeling of guilt persisted to the end of his life and kept him constantly active in furthering Arab political aims.’

ARNOLD LAWRENCE (T. E’s BROTHER) TO JEREMY WILSON, AUGUST 1971

 

On 7 October 2023, the Al-Qasam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian organisation Hamas, broke out of besieged Gaza and brutally massacred Israeli and foreign citizens and military personnel, an operation that left around 1200 dead, injuring many more, and taking approximately 230 hostages. The attack, named Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by Hamas, proved to be the bloodiest day in Israel’s history. In the aftermath of a huge intelligence, military and security failure, Israel's retaliation on the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip was immediate, devastating and driven by a desire for retribution.

Israel asserts its right to self-defence and history shows that it has never refrained from using disproportionate force in response to attacks coming from Gaza, or elsewhere. Backed by statements of support from the US, the UK and others, the Israeli Defense Force has since unleashed a firestorm on the Gazan civilian population from land, sea, and air. As a result of this ongoing action, accusations have been made that Israel has violated numerous articles of international law. Human rights organizations and governments from all over the world have called for an end to hostilities or, at the very least, a pause to allow in much needed aid and relief to people caught up in a humanitarian disaster. Israel counters this by saying a ceasefire will simply give Hamas time to regroup and rearm.

In all the years I have studied the situation in Israel and Palestine, I have never before seen this level of brutality, barbarity and destruction inflicted upon the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. This is unprecedented. With live streaming, it is possible to witness this in real time. According to different sources (as of 7 November 2023), in excess of 10,000 Palestinian men, women, and children, have so far died in four weeks of relentless bombing that has targeted residential properties, hospitals, ambulances, schools, UNWRA refugee centres, churches and mosques, bakeries, so-called safe routes to the south, as well as the only remaining exit out of the Strip at Rafa on the Egyptian border. Israel claims that Hamas bunkers and tunnels operate under these buildings and are therefore legitimate targets. In the coming days and weeks, thousands of bodies will be pulled from under the rubble of Gaza City as well as the eight refugee camps that lie within its encircled boundary. With no humanitarian pause in sight, it appears Israel is determined to eradicate not only Hamas but also Gaza itself. Soon there will be nothing left for Gazans to return to. (NOTE: As of 26 January 2024, the number of dead has risen to over 30,000).

Israel has maintained control over Gaza's land, sea, and air since the brutal blockade of 2007, tightly regulating the supply of water, electricity, fuel, and other essential goods, and limiting or prohibiting the movement of people. Services such as desperately needed medical aid and internet connectivity have been weaponized and are arbitrarily withdrawn.

Gaza has a population of 2.2 million people crowded into what is in effect the world's largest concentration camp. With half of the population under the age of 18, more than 4000 children have been killed so far. Surely the terrible attack by Hamas cannot justify the murder of so many innocent children. Injuries from bomb blasts, full body burns, allegedly from phosphorous shells according to doctors on the ground, and the mental suffering from seeing loved ones torn to pieces are wounds that will never heal. While claiming to target Hamas fighters, entire families are being wiped out by indiscriminate bombing. Israel disputes any numbers coming from the Hamas controlled health authority and claims that many killed will be Hamas fighters. The number of dead women and children will tell another tale. 

Among the dead are at least 37 journalists, having been killed while displaying courage and tenacity in telling their story to the world. Despite the horrifying scenes of the Hamas terror attack on 7 October, known as Israel’s Black Saturday, many major cities in the world continue to witness incredible scenes of support for Palestine. Israel has lost the propaganda war. (NOTE: As of 26 January 2024, there are now over 83 Journalists killed according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than in WW2 which lasted four years, and in Vietnam which last two decades.)

Palestine's armed resistance against Israel's colonisation did not start on 7 October 2023; the long road to the collective dispossession of the indigenous people of Palestine began much earlier. This was alluded to by António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, who told the security council: “It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” Guterres was of course referring to the aftermath of the Six-Day War of 1967 when Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on the opening day of the war designed to destroy the Egyptian Air force and its airfields following the mass mobilisation of an Arab military alliance that had aggressively surrounded Israel on at least two borders. In the ensuing six-day conflict, Israel won territorial gains from Egypt, Jordan and Syria which included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Sinai, and the Gaza Strip.

Israel immediately called for Guiterres' resignation and announced that it was withdrawing travel visas for UN officials, including the UN humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths. As fury grows over its strikes on Gaza, it seems Israel is not afraid to lose friends and support in order to pursue its war aims. Meanwhile, the Israeli hostages remain in captivity and more than 1.6 million Palestinians have been displaced.

Respected Israeli and Jewish academics have described Israel as a colonial settler apartheid regime established in 1948 on the land of Palestine and at the expense and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people following their catastrophe (al-Nakba). For fifty-six years, Israel has held Gaza and the West Bank under strict military occupation, and in international law has a duty to protect all civilians under its control. Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, pointed out that Israel "cannot claim the right to self defense against a threat that emanates from the territory it occupies... from a territory that is kept under belligerent occupation." It is like saying that an abuser has the right to defend himself because his victim struck him. Meanwhile, attacks from armed colonialist settlers and military raids in the West Bank, which is not under Hamas control, complete the stranglehold on Palestinian freedoms and render the possibility of a two state solution null and void.  

I cannot guess what the Arabist, Colonel Stewart Newcombe’s reaction would have been to these events, but I know he would not have stood idly by while innocent civilians on both sides were slaughtered in their thousands.  

But Guterres was reticent in his speech to the United Nations and could have gone back much further, beyond even the 1948 Nakba, when 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes at the birth of a nation whose very existence was predicated on the destruction of another. Today, images of long lines of Gazans fleeing for their lives, waving white flags of surrender out of fear of being targeted, are a stark reminder of a catastrophe that has lasted over 75 years. In the follow-up to this article, I will try to contextualize many of the major events that led to this dark place in the history of the region, paying special attention to Newcombe's involvement and his steadfast support for the Palestinian people who were once promised so much in what became known as the twice promised land.         

A Cartographer's Tool Kit et al

Theodolite and Gunter's Chain

A Cartographer’s Tool Kit

On the eve of the First World War, a team of military cartographers and surveyors, under Stewart Newcombe’s command, was sent out to measure and map a strategic triangle of southern Palestine - today’s Negev Desert – as part of a secret survey carried out on behalf of the British War Office between January and May of 1914. The survey of the region known since Biblical times as the Wilderness of Zin would gather vital information about a previously uncharted area, considered to be of military importance in the run up to any future conflict with Turkey. It would provide the Director of Military Operations in London with the missing piece of a jigsaw that was started by Conder and Kitchener’s extensive Survey of Western Palestine in the 1880’s, carried out on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund - the P.E.F. 

The Wilderness of Zin survey proved to be the last opportunity before the First World War to systematically gather reliable intelligence on the ground. By the time the War Office got their maps of the Sinai and the Negev, a shift to visual air reconnaissance had been introduced, augmented in the latter half of 1916 by photo reconnaissance. Some years later, Newcombe himself would explore a method of land contouring by use of the Thompson Stereoplotter on aerial photographs. But in the great surveys of Palestine, Sinai and the Wilderness of Zin the surveying teams in the field used the simple tools of their trade – theodolite, compass and measuring chain - essential components of a cartographer’s tool kit. What were also needed were ingenuity, courage, diplomacy and tact when dealing with local tribes or Ottoman authority. Newcombe was highly praised by T.E. Lawrence for possessing these qualities in abundance and paving the way for future travellers in the desert.

Suez Canal showing Sinai to the east

A resourceful and tenacious character, Stewart Newcombe’s life epitomized those robust Victorian qualities that helped paint the globe pink but whose life encompassed the eventual shift in Britain’s relations with its subject peoples and saw the beginning of the fall of the last of the great world empires, a life that spanned Pax Britannica to decolonisation. He died in 1956, just days before Gamal Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal and three months before the débacle that became known as the Suez Crisis created shock waves across the region, when Israeli incursions into the Canal Zone "forced" Britain and France to attempt to regain control under a pre-arranged agreement known as the Sèvres Protocol. Politically it was a shoddy operation; militarily it was of benefit only to Israel which gained an outlet for international shipping through the Straits of Tiran, an 8 mile bottleneck between the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia that the Egyptians had previously kept shut with strategically placed guns to close off access for Israeli ships entering the Red Sea for routes to and from Africa and Asia. The fiasco also helped bring about the abandonment of the British policy of slowly nurturing the colonised people of Africa to self-determination. The cry now was for Britain’s immediate departure. Suez had been fought over by Britain for the last time; the crisis would prove to be the death knell not just of the British Empire but to all the empires of Western Europe.

Stewart Newcombe was not to witness the inevitable conclusion to the dismantling of the British Empire, but he would not have been surprised at its outcome.

A wind of change blowing across the Arab world

Newcombe had once helped protect the canal by mapping its eastern approaches. Where maps then held the power, cheap transistor radios were the new weapons, distributed widely by Nasser to spread the word of nationalism and unity across Africa and the Arab world. Today, the internet is the weapon of choice where the rallying cry of a new generation can be heard across the Arab world on Facebook and Twitter - a wind of change that is felt more keenly when the cry is heard by those without access to the media. The use of force by regimes against its own people now changes the situation, as seen recently in Libya and Bahrain, while around the world the wheels of diplomacy turn slowly. Before a U.N. resolution was passed on 17 March 2011 the international community appeared reticent to reach an agreement on how to intervene – in most cases it was an oil-driven paralysis that had not affected their response to Egypt, in others it is the risk of setting a precedent when their own domestic condition may trip them up in the future.  

Today we exist with the consequences left over from the end of the age of empire, where an occasional aftershock pricks our collective conscience, yet one more seismic shift in the new world order – a constant reshuffling of the pack. Regimes come and go - our response to them is judged by history.

Japan and the Newcombes

In the 1870’S Newcombe’s father, Edward, helped build the first railways in Japan under the accelerated industrialisation of the period known as the Meiji Restoration. Two of Newcombe’s brothers were born in Osaka. It was therefore inevitable that Stewart Newcombe should have become interested in engineering, and especially in the engineering and construction of railways. During the scramble for Africa he helped push the railways through Sudan; by 1917 he was to prove equally adept at blowing up railway lines in the Hejaz. My thanks and thoughts go to the followers of this blog from Japan who, my stats tell me, have continued to visit during the last few days.