37-738: The Arab Bureau was a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department established in 1916 during the First World War , and closed in 1920, whose purpose was the collection and dissemination of propaganda and intelligence about the Arab regions of the Middle East . According to a Committee of Imperial Defence paper from 7 January 1916, the Arab Bureau was established to "harmonise British political activity in
74-905: A compromise. In January 1916, the Arab Bureau was established as a section of Sudan Intelligence in Cairo, ultimately answering to the High Commissioner in Egypt ( Henry McMahon ) who in turn was overseen by the Foreign Office and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ( Edward Grey ) in London. It was staffed by Middle East experts from military intelligence, Egypt Force who shared Clayton's outlook. Arnold Wilson later wrote that: The Arab Bureau in Cairo died unregretted in 1920, having helped to induce His Majesty's Government to adopt
111-467: A new Anglo-Iraqi Treaty . His unexpected death, from a heart attack, delayed matters, but the new treaty was eventually signed in 1930. Clayton's younger brother, Iltyd Nicholl Clayton , was also a British Army officer. In 1912, Clayton married Enid Caroline Thorowgood in London, with the ceremony being conducted by Llewellyn Henry Gwynne , the Bishop of Khartoum . They had five children, but, as
148-640: A policy which brought disaster to the people of Syria, disillusionment to the Arabs of Palestine and ruin to the Hijaz. Gilbert Clayton was named head or "chief" of the Arab Bureau. David Hogarth , a naval intelligence officer, was acting director of the Arab Bureau and Kinahan Cornwallis his deputy. Herbert Garland , George Ambrose Lloyd , George Stewart Symes , Philip Graves , Gertrude Bell , Aubrey Herbert , William Ormsby-Gore , Thomas Edward Lawrence , Alfred Guillaume and Tracy Philipps were also part of
185-531: A report by management consultant group Collinson Grant was made public by Andrew Mackinlay . The report severely criticised the FCO's management structure, noting: The Foreign Office commissioned the report to highlight areas which would help it achieve its pledge to reduce spending by £87 million over three years. In response to the report being made public, the Foreign Office stated it had already implemented
222-482: A review of the FCO's strategic priorities. One of the key messages of these discussions was the conclusion that the existing framework of ten international strategic priorities, dating from 2003, was no longer appropriate. Although the framework had been useful in helping the FCO plan its work and allocate its resources, there was agreement that it needed a new framework to drive its work forward. The new strategic framework consists of three core elements: In August 2005,
259-949: A wider collection of political and military information regarding the Middle East and in turn produce easily understood reports to inform policymaking in Cairo and London toward the Ottoman Arab territories . Clayton's preference for locating the Arab Bureau in Cairo met with resistance from the Indian Government (under the Viceroy Charles Hardinge ) and the India Office (under the Secretary of State for India, Austen Chamberlain ), who did not want interference in their control of territories around
296-660: Is responsible for representing and promoting British interests worldwide. The head of the FCDO is the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs , commonly abbreviated to "foreign secretary". This is regarded as one of the four most prestigious positions in the Cabinet – the Great Offices of State – alongside those of Prime Minister , Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary . David Lammy
333-727: Is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom . The office was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO was itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office . The department in its various forms
370-477: Is to support efforts to achieve a two-state solution . Funding a particular project for a limited period of time does not mean that we endorse every single action or public comment made by an NGO or by its employees." In September 2012, the FCO and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding on diplomatic cooperation, which promotes the co-location of embassies,
407-586: The Arab Revolt . In Palestine, Arabia and Mesopotamia, in the 1920s as a colonial administrator, he helped negotiate the borders of the countries that later became Israel , Jordan , Syria , Saudi Arabia and Iraq . Born in Ryde , Isle of Wight , Clayton was the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel William Lewis Nicholl Clayton, and his wife, Maria Martha Pilkington. He was educated at the Isle of Wight College and
SECTION 10
#1732765691131444-585: The Colonial Office , from 1966 to 1968 by the Commonwealth Office , from 1968 to 2020 by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office , and since 2020 by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (this did not include protectorates , which fell under the purview of the Foreign Office , or to British India , which had been administered by the East India Company until 1858, and thereafter by
481-628: The First World War , the Arab Bureau was set up within the British Foreign Office as a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department . During the early Cold War an important department was the Information Research Department (IRD) which was used to create propaganda against socialist and anti-colonial movements. The Foreign Office hired its first woman diplomat, Monica Milne , in 1946. The FCO
518-583: The India Office ). This arrangement has been subject to criticism in the UK and in the overseas territories. For example, the chief minister of Anguilla , Victor Banks , said: "We are not foreign; neither are we members of the Commonwealth , so we should have a different interface with the UK that is based on mutual respect". There have been numerous suggestions on ways to improve the relationship between
555-684: The Near East ...[and] keep the Foreign Office , the India Office , the Committee of Defence, the War Office , the Admiralty , and Government of India simultaneously informed of the general tendency of Germano-Turkish Policy." Bruce Westrate wrote in his 1992 history of the Arab Bureau that "the agency has subsequently borne much of the blame for Britain's terrible mishandling of Middle Eastern policy during and shortly after World War I." It
592-679: The Persian Gulf and particularly the Iraq provinces that they planned to occupy and cultivate for grain production for India. Newly discovered oil deposits located around the North Gulf brought further attention to the region. But the director of Naval Intelligence in Britain, Captain Reginald 'Blinker' Hall , supported Clayton's concept and urged government approval. The result was
629-838: The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich . He become an officer in the Royal Artillery in October 1895. He was part of the forces sent to the Sudan during the closing stages of the Mahdist War , seeing action in the Battle of Atbara (1898). He then served in Egypt, but in 1910 he retired and left the army to work as private secretary to the Governor-General of Sudan, Sir Francis Reginald Wingate . During
666-402: The 19th century, it was not infrequent for the Foreign Office to approach The Times newspaper and ask for continental intelligence, which was often superior to that conveyed by official sources. Examples of journalists who specialized in foreign affairs and were well connected to politicians included: Henry Southern , Valentine Chirol , Harold Nicolson, and Robert Bruce Lockhart . During
703-688: The Arab Bureau. In 1920, Garland was appointed director, under High Commissioner to Egypt Lord Allenby . Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ( FCDO )
740-639: The Colonial Office in 1925. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office held responsibility for international development issues between 1970 and 1974, and again between 1979 and 1997. The National Archives website contains a government timeline to show the departments responsible for foreign affairs from 1945. From 1997, international development became the responsibility of the separate Department for International Development . When David Miliband took over as Foreign Secretary in June 2007, he set in hand
777-706: The FCDO are scrutinised by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee . According to the FCDO website, the department's key responsibilities (as of 2020) are as follows: In addition to the above responsibilities, the FCDO is responsible for the British Overseas Territories , which had previously been administered from 1782 to 1801 by the Home Office , from 1801 to 1854 by the War and Colonial Office , from 1854 to 1966 by
SECTION 20
#1732765691131814-487: The First World War, Clayton worked in army intelligence in Cairo, Egypt, serving in the newly formed Arab Bureau . In 1914, he sent a secret memorandum to Lord Kitchener , suggesting that Britain work with the Arabs to overthrow their Ottoman rulers. He became Director of Intelligence, and was promoted Brigadier-General. In this role, he worked with many of the people that helped to trigger the Arab Revolt against
851-546: The Ottoman Turks. In Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1935), T. E. Lawrence described Clayton's role as chief of British intelligence in Egypt between 1914 and 1917: Clayton made the perfect leader for such a band of wild men as we were. He was calm, detached, clear-sighted, of unconscious courage in assuming responsibility. He gave an open run to his subordinates. His own views were general, like his knowledge: and he worked by influence rather than by loud direction. It
888-631: The Queen Mother when she got a fishbone stuck in her throat. in 1982. His other son, Sam, married Lady Mary Leveson-Gower, daughter of the Queen Mother's sister Rose Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville ; their son is Bertie Clayton and daughter is Rosie Stancer , polar explorer. On 11 September 1929, Gilbert Clayton succumbed to the consequences of a heart attack in Baghdad at the age of 54. His widow and their three remaining children moved back to England, first to Doddington, Lincolnshire, and then to
925-612: The blessing of a same-sex marriage . In 2012, the Foreign Office was criticised by Gerald Steinberg of the Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor , saying that the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development provided more than £500,000 in funding to Palestinian NGOs which he said "promote political attacks on Israel". In response, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said "we are very careful about who and what we fund. The objective of our funding
962-594: The creation of a London office under his auspices to gather, filter, and distribute intelligence on the German and Turkish Middle East policy and "co-ordinate propaganda in favour of the United Kingdom among non-Indian Moslems ." Sykes' proposal was welcomed by Gilbert Clayton , the director of civilian and military intelligence in Egypt and Sudan. Clayton believed that such an office might not only discover and counter enemy propaganda but be capable of overseeing
999-512: The family accompanied him to his appointments, two of them died, one from pneumonic plague . His daughter Patience (later Marshall), who suffered from bubonic plague as a child, studied at Cambridge and went on to gain an OBE for her work as a magistrate and with young offenders. His son John went into medicine, becoming the doctor for Eton College and "Surgeon Apothecary to the Royal Household at Windsor", in which capacity he treated
1036-463: The joint provision of consular services, and common crisis response. The project has been criticised for further diminishing the UK's influence in Europe. In 2011, the then Foreign Secretary, William Hague , announced the government's intention to open a number of new diplomatic posts in order to enhance the UK's overseas network. As such, eight new embassies and six new consulates were opened around
1073-573: The overseas territories and the UK. Suggestions have included setting up a dedicated department to handle relations with the overseas territories, and the absorption of the Overseas Territories Directorate (OTD) in the Cabinet Office , thus affording the overseas territories with better connections to the centre of government. The FCDO ministers are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold: The Foreign Office
1110-438: The report's recommendations. In 2009, Gordon Brown created the position of Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) to the FCO. The first science adviser was David Clary . On 25 April 2010, the department apologised after The Sunday Telegraph obtained a "foolish" document calling for the upcoming September visit of Pope Benedict XVI to be marked by the launch of "Benedict-branded" condoms , the opening of an abortion clinic and
1147-415: The world. Gilbert Clayton Brigadier-General Sir Gilbert Falkingham Clayton , KCMG , KBE , CB (6 April 1875 – 11 September 1929) was a British Army intelligence officer and colonial administrator, who worked in several countries in the Middle East in the early 20th century. In Egypt, during World War I as an intelligence officer, he supervised those who worked to start
Arab Bureau - Misplaced Pages Continue
1184-450: Was appointed Foreign Secretary on 5th July 2024 following the 2024 general election . The FCDO is managed day-to-day by a civil servant , the permanent under-secretary of state for foreign affairs , who also acts as the Head of His Majesty's Diplomatic Service . Sir Philip Barton took office as permanent under-secretary on 2 September 2020. The expenditure, administration and policy of
1221-593: Was briefly acting High Commissioner. He was then involved in negotiations with Arab rulers for the Treaty of Jeddah (1927) ; he was an envoy to the Sultan Ibn Saud of Nejd , tasked to undertake a mission to Yemen to negotiate with its ruler Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din . From 1928, he was High Commissioner for the British Mandate of Mesopotamia (Iraq). Clayton was involved in negotiations for
1258-572: Was constituted on the initiative of Mark Sykes who, in December 1915, reported to London that, in a recent tour of the Middle East from Egypt to India , he had discovered that the German and Turkish Governments were widely distributing anti-British wartime propaganda that countered British efforts and action in the Middle East. Sykes was concerned because British command posts in the Middle East were generally uncooperative and thus far unable to produce effective counterpropaganda . Sykes proposed
1295-630: Was formed in March 1782 by combining the Southern and Northern Departments of the Secretary of State, each of which covered both foreign and domestic affairs in their parts of the Kingdom. The two departments' foreign affairs responsibilities became the Foreign Office, whilst their domestic affairs responsibilities were assigned to the Home Office. The Home Office is technically the senior. During
1332-720: Was formed on 17 October 1968, from the merger of the short-lived Commonwealth Office and the Foreign Office . The Commonwealth Office had been created only in 1966, by the merger of the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Colonial Office , the Commonwealth Relations Office having been formed by the merger of the Dominions Office and the India Office in 1947—with the Dominions Office having been split from
1369-510: Was not easy to descry his influence. He was like water, or permeating oil, creeping silently and insistently through everything. It was not possible to say where Clayton was and was not, and how much really belonged to him. Following the war, Clayton worked as an advisor for the Egyptian government, and then in the colonial administration of the British Mandate of Palestine . He was Civil Secretary of Palestine from 1922 to 1925, at which point he
#130869