The apple of discord : the impact of the Levant on Anglo-French relations during 1943

This thesis provides a detailed account and analysis of
Anglo-French relations in the Levant and their impact on the
more general relationship between the British and the Free
French during the important year of 1943. It aims to examine
and explain how the Levant, traditionally an area of mutual
suspicion and rivalry, created and accentuated discord and
dissension between wartime Allies and , on occasion , even
came perilously close to rupturing their relations.

The introduction provides a survey of Anglo-French
relations in the region as a backdrop against which the
period covered by the thesis must be viewed. Chapters I-IV
examine two policies pursued by Britain in the interests of
the war effort, the persuasion of the Free French to honour
their independence pledge to Syria and Lebanon and the
encouragement of the formation of a unified French movement
in North Africa. Arising from these policies, the mounting
tensions between the Foreign Office and its principal
representative in the Levant and between Churchill and de
Gaulle are explored. The influence of deteriorating AngloFrench relations in the Levant on the Churchill-de Gaulle relationship is considered as are the high-level AngloFrench discussions in the summer of 1943 which acknowledged the need for better co-operation in the Levant. Chapters V and VI investigate the increasing Bri tish involvement in Levant politics, which resulted in the establishment of strongly nationalist and anti-French governments in both Syria and Lebanon.

Chapters VII-XII are concerned exclusively with events
in the Lebanon during late October and November 1943 which
provoked a major crisis in Anglo-French relations. Attention
is focused on the efforts of the Foreign Office and their
French counterparts to defuse the crisis and to lessen its
overall impact, and is contrasted with the intransigence
displayed by Churchill and de Gaulle and with the
belligerence of both French and British authorities on the
spot. The final chapters deal with the efforts made to heal
the breach in the Anglo-French relationship by both sides
and the attempt by both to re-evaluate and reform their
policies in the Levant. The troubled course of the AngloFrench alliance in the Levant throughout the remainder of the war, including the crisis in Syria in May and June 1945, is examined in a brief epilogue.