Editing Emirate of Transjordan (section)

===Relationship with Palestine===
{{main|Mandate for Palestine}}
In early 1921, prior to the convening of the Cairo Conference, the Middle East Department of the [[Colonial Office]] set out the situation as follows:
<blockquote>Distinction to be drawn between Palestine and Trans-Jordan under the Mandate. His Majesty's Government are responsible under the terms of the Mandate for establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people. They are also pledged by the assurances given to the Sherif of Mecca in 1915 to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs in those portions of the (Turkish) vilayet of Damascus in which they are free to act without detriment to French interests. The western boundary of the Turkish vilayet of Damascus before the war was the River Jordan. Palestine and Trans-Jordan do not, therefore, stand upon quite the same footing. At the same time, the two areas are economically interdependent, and their development must be considered as a single problem. Further, His Majesty's Government have been entrusted with the Mandate for "Palestine". If they wish to assert their claim to Trans-Jordan and to avoid raising with other Powers the legal status of that area, they can only do so by proceeding upon the assumption that Trans-Jordan forms part of the area covered by the Palestine Mandate. In default of this assumption Trans-Jordan would be left, under article 132 of the [[Treaty of Sèvres]], to the disposal of the principal Allied Powers. Some means must be found of giving effect in Trans-Jordan to the terms of the Mandate consistently with "recognition and support of the independence of the Arabs".<ref>[''Memorandum drawn up in London by Middle East Department Prior to Palestine Conference'']. Report on Middle East Conference held in Cairo and Jerusalem, Appendix 2, p. 30. June 1921, CO935/1/1</ref></blockquote>
{{multiple image|align=left
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| image2 = British Government memorandum regarding Article 25 of the Palestine Mandate with respect to Transjordan, 25 March 1921.jpg
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| caption2 = 25 March 1921 proposal, approved a week later, to include Transjordan via Article 25: <small>"On the assumption that&nbsp;... provision is made in some way in final political arrangements as regards Trans-Jordania for its inclusion within the boundaries of Palestine as eventually fixed, but under a form of administration different from that of Palestine, however undesirable it may be for His Majesty's Government themselves to propose alterations of the mandates at this stage, they were inclined to view that when the "A" mandates come to be considered by the Council of the League it would be wise in this case to propose to that body the insertion...after article 24 of the Palestine mandate..."</small>{{efn|Klieman writes: "Accordingly, Churchill cabled the Colonial Office on 21 March, asking whether the Cairo proposals would necessitate any special provisions being made in the two mandates...Upon receipt of this cable informal consultation took place between the Colonial Office legal adviser and the assistant legal adviser to the Foreign Office. Their suggestion, on the 25th by Shuckburgh, was that...a clause be inserted in each of the mandates&nbsp;... [Footnote:] The first draft of Article 25 was originally worded "to postpone the application of such provisions," but was altered at Shuckburgh's initiative since "'postpone' means, or may be taken to mean, that we are going to apply them eventually""{{sfn|Klieman|1970|p=123}}}}
| image1 = Cair Conference 12 March memo regarding Transjordan.jpg
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| caption1 = 12 March 1921 British memorandum explaining the situation of Transjordan: <small>"His Majesty's Government have been entrusted with the Mandate for 'Palestine'. If they wish to assert their claim to Trans-Jordan and to avoid raising with other Powers the legal status of that area, they can only do so by proceeding upon the assumption that Trans-Jordan forms part of the area covered by the Palestine Mandate. In default of this assumption Trans-Jordan would be left, under article 132 of the Treaty of Sèvres, to the disposal of the principal Allied Powers."</small>{{sfn|Klieman|1970|p=115}} From 12 to 25 March 1921, the inclusion of Transjordan in the mandate was formulated by the British government.{{sfn|Klieman|1970|p=115–125}}
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The [[Cairo Conference (1921)|Cairo Conference of March 1921]] was convened by [[Winston Churchill]], then Britain's Colonial Secretary. With the mandates of Palestine and Iraq awarded to Britain, Churchill wished to consult with Middle East experts. At his request, [[Gertrude Bell]], Sir Percy Cox, T. E. Lawrence, Sir [[Kinahan Cornwallis]], Sir Arnold T. Wilson, Iraqi minister of war [[Jaafar Al-Askari|Jaʿfar alAskari]], Iraqi minister of finance [[Sassoon Eskell|Sasun Effendi (Sasson Heskayl)]], and others gathered in Cairo, Egypt. An additional outstanding question was the policy to be adopted in Transjordan to prevent anti-French military actions from being launched within the allied British zone of influence. The Hashemites were Associated Powers during the war, and a peaceful solution was urgently needed. The two most significant decisions of the conference were to offer the throne of Iraq to emir Faisal ibn Hussein (who became [[Faisal I of Iraq]]) and an emirate of Transjordan (now Jordan) to his brother Abdullah ibn Hussein (who became [[Abdullah I of Jordan]]). The conference provided the political blueprint for British administration in both Iraq and Transjordan, and in offering these two regions to the sons of Hussein bin Ali, Churchill stated that the spirit, if not the letter, of Britain's wartime promises to the Arabs might be fulfilled. After further discussions between Churchill and Abdullah in Jerusalem, it was mutually agreed that Transjordan was accepted into the Palestine mandatory area as an Arab country apart from Palestine with the proviso that it would be, initially for six months, under the nominal rule of the emir Abdullah and that it would not form part of the [[Homeland for the Jewish people|Jewish national home]] to be established west of the River Jordan.<ref name=Ingrams>{{cite book |last=Ingrams |first=Doreen |author-link=Doreen Ingrams |title=Palestine Papers, 1917-1922: Seeds of Conflict |pages=116–117 |publisher=[[George Braziller]], Inc. |year=1973 |edition=1st |isbn=0807606480 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo0CAAAAMAAJ |access-date=10 December 2021 |archive-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220112201455/https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo0CAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Lustick>{{Cite book |author=[[Ian Lustick|Lustick, Ian]] |title=For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel |year=1988 |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations |page=[https://archive.org/details/forlandlordjewis0000lust/page/37 37] |isbn=978-0-87609-036-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/forlandlordjewis0000lust/page/37}}</ref>{{sfn|Wilson|1990|p=53|ps=: "Abdullah began by suggesting the unification of Palestine and Transjordan under an Arab ruler, or the unification of Transjordan and Iraq. Both ideas were firmly squashed. In the end he agreed to take responsibility for Transjordan alone for a period of six months. .........It was further agreed that no British troops would be stationed there... With this agreement, the division of the Fertile Crescent into separate states dominated by either Britain or France was completed. Despite the short term nature of the arrangement, Transjordan proved to be a lasting creation. For Abdullah himself his six months lasted a lifetime.}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Louis |first1=William Roger |author-link=Wm. Roger Louis |title=The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951 |year=1985 |pages=348 |publisher=Clarendon Press |quote=In return for providing a rudimentary administration and obviating the need for British military occupation, Abdullah in March 1921 gained assurance from Churchill, then Colonial Secretary, that no Jews would be allowed to settle in Transjordan. That guarantee effectively created Transjordan as an Arab country apart from Palestine, where the British commitment to a "national home" remained a delicate problem between Abdullah and the British. |isbn=9780198229605 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATQQ0FMS1FQC&pg=PA348 |access-date=26 February 2012 |archive-date=1 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101175900/https://books.google.com/books?id=ATQQ0FMS1FQC&pg=PA348 |url-status=live }}</ref> Abdullah was then appointed Emir of the Transjordania region in April 1921.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/422/ |title=Amir Abdullah's Bodyguard on Camels with Red, Green and White Standard at Far Left |website=[[World Digital Library]] |date=April 1921 |access-date=2013-07-14 |archive-date=5 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005135102/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/422/ |url-status=live }}</ref>[[File:First elections in Transjordan 1929.jpg|thumb|The [[1929 Transjordanian general election|first general election in Transjordan]] took place on 2 April 1929]]

On 21 March 1921, the Foreign and Colonial office legal advisers decided to introduce Article 25 into the [[Mandate for Palestine]],<ref>[[Klieman, Aaron S.]] (1970). ''Foundations of British Policy in the Arab World: The Cairo Conference of 1921''. Johns Hopkins, {{ISBN|0-8018-1125-2}}, pp. 228–230: "In September, 1920, Lord Curzon had instructed his representatives in Paris to leave the eastern boundary of Palestine for subsequent definition. While treating Transjordan as a separate entity from the Damascus state, formed by the French after Maysalun, the foreign secretary wished to avoid any “definite connection” between it and Palestine, thus leaving the way open for the establishment there, “should it become advisable,” of some form of independent Arab government. In November Hubert Young maintained that Great Britain would have difficulty refuting the contention that in 1915 Sir Henry McMahon had pledged to acknowledge the independence of the Arabs in Transjordan, although Palestine had been intentionally excluded. The Zionists, however, simultaneously argued for the incorporation of Transjordan into Palestine... The occasion of the Cairo Conference offered an opportunity to clarify the matter. As Lloyd George and Churchill both agreed, the solution consisted of treating Transjordan as “an Arab province or adjunct of Palestine” while at the same time “preserving [the] Arab character of the area and administration.”... Despite the objection from Eric Forbes Adam in the Middle East Department that it was better not to raise the question of different treatment publicly by suggesting new amendments or additions to the mandates, the legal officers of the Colonial and Foreign offices, meeting on 21 March 1921, deemed it advisable, as a matter of prudence, to insert in advance general clauses giving the mandatory “certain discretionary powers” in applying the Palestine and Mesopotamia mandates to Transjordan and Kurdistan respectively"</ref> which brought Transjordan under the Palestine mandate and stated that in that territory, Britain could 'postpone or withhold' those articles of the Mandate concerning a Jewish national home. It was approved by Curzon on 31 March 1921, and the revised final draft of the mandate (including Transjordan) was forwarded to the League of Nations on 22 July 1922.<ref>Klieman, Aaron S. (1970). ''Foundations of British Policy in the Arab World: The Cairo Conference of 1921''. Johns Hopkins, {{ISBN|0-8018-1125-2}}, pp. 228–234.</ref><ref>[https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/C7AAE196F41AA055052565F50054E656 10 August 1922] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916132453/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/C7AAE196F41AA055052565F50054E656 |date=16 September 2014 }}: "The Palestine Order in Council. ...The 10th day of August, 1922. ...And whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, [the Balfour Declaration]... ''Power to exclude Territories to East of Jordan from application of any part of Order.'' 86.	This Order In Council Shall Not Apply To Such Parts Of The Territory Comprised In Palestine To The East Of The Jordan And The Dead Sea As Shall Be Defined By Order Of The High Commissioner. Subject To The Provisions Of Article 25 Of The Mandate, The High Commissioner May May Make Such Provision For The Administration Of Any Territories So Defined As Aforesaid As With The Approval Of The Secretary Of State May be prescribed. ... Given at Our Court at Saint James's this Fourteenth day of August, 1922, in the Thirteenth Year of Our Reign."</ref> In August 1922, the British government [[Transjordan memorandum|presented a memorandum]] to the League of Nations stating that Transjordan would be excluded from all the provisions dealing with Jewish settlement, and this memorandum was communicated to the League on 12 August and approved by it on 16 September.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}