Machine summary:
For instance, Palestine, according to McMahon, was excluded from the area of Arab independence, ( an explanation he gave to Colonial Office in a letter dated 12 March 1922, seven years after the negotiations) while the Sherif and the Arabs held quite the contrary view: - -shetif Hussaitcmait~.
The overtures to the negotiations between the British and Sherif Hussain had begun as early as February 1914-~ight months before the formal rupture with Turkey-when an unexpected, brief and apparently abrupt conversation took place between Sherif 'Abdulla and Lord Kitchener and later between 'Abdulla and Storrs, the Oriental Secretary at the British Agency, Cairo, when the former on his way from Mecca to Constantinople, was staying as the guest of the Khedive.
'Aziz 'Ali al-Misri and certain leaders of Hizb al-Lamarkaziya ( Decentralisation Party) in Cairo were approached by Storrs and Clayton to ascertain their views and plans in such a fast approaching eventuality; particularly if the Allies were to assure them of their full _support for Arab independence after the War. 43 Lord Kitchener, who had now become the Secretary of State for War, being promp• ted by Storrs, had sent a telegram to Cairo urging them to ascertain from 'Abdulla whether the Sherif and the Arabs of Hejaz "would be with us or against us" in.
" 56 In his reply of 24 October 1915 to this second letter, which demanded a direct and assuring answer, McMahon, having evidently received confidential information as to the public mandate which Hussain possessed, so clearly indicated by the support which the secret Arab societies of Syria and Iraqsz gave him, and with the formal concurrence of His Majesty's Government, gave assurances The abolition of all exceptional .