THE British had never, despite French assumptions, suspicions, and accusations, had any wish or intention of keeping control of any of Syria beyond ‘Dan’, in the north of Palestine. On the other hand they did look with favour on the extension of Arab control into the inland parts of northern Syria. By contrast, the French wished to secure clear control and rule over as much of greater Syria as possible, and were quite prepared to accept the restrictions implied by the mandate system, on the assumption that such restrictions were largely theoretical and could be easily evaded (an assumption fully shared by the British). It had become clear long since that their original hope for the acquisition of Syria from the Sinai Desert to the Taurus Mountains as a French colony was out of the question.

It was obvious that the British would hold onto Palestine and during 1919 British troops were active east of the Jordan, protecting the crops of the settled inhabitants against raids by the Bedouin (‘Arabs longing to plunder Palestine and to kill Jews who defile the Holy City of Jerusalem’, in Allenby's elaboration in May 1919.) So French ambitions became concentrated on Syria and Lebanon, Cilicia and al-Jazeira east to the borders of Mosul. (Mosul was in fact disputed between Britain, France, and the new Turkish Republic for several years; in the event might succeeded, and the area became part of the new British-controlled kingdom of Iraq.) This northern sector, whose northern boundary was indefinite, would have doubled the size of the territory France actually acquired.