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Joyce (Pierce Charles, Major

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38pp. & 3 envelopes, 8vo, Galway, Ireland, Khartoum, Sudan & Baghdad, 17th August 1919 - 31st October 1943, including: in the aftermath of the Arab revolt and the Sykes-Picot agreement, "... do not believe the French in their allegations against our personel out there. They bring this up simply as an excuse for their own unpopularity - and they are unpopular to the majority of Syrians, and have been since the days of the Arab Revolt chiefly owing to to the line of action they took by supporting the movement in theory & scarcely at all in practice. Furthermore the personel provided by France for forwarding their claims in Syria and headed by Mr. George Picôt appear chosen now to rear suspicion in the already suspicious Arab mind... . The relations between the British & French Liason at Damascus have always been most cordial. We know perfectly well that Great Britain does not desire the Mandate for Syria & have accordingly not resorted to propaganda in any form... . Furthermore both Col Cornwallis & myself have... informed both Emir Faisal & his political agents that the mandate is not desired by Great Britain... . After having fostered the Arab Revolt for over 2 years & fought with them against the Turks one cannot consistently desire to see them handed over to the care of an unpopular mandatory power", and suggesting that Great Britain should remove all personnel and troops from Syria, and his future career in the Middle East; and a T.L.s. from Harmsworth to Lord Curzon (torn) forwarding the letter with his comments, "I attach a letter from my friend Colonel Joyce who was with Colonel Lawrence in the great Arab adventure and has recently come from Damascus. I asked him to let me have his views quite informally on the French allegations that our military and political agents in Syria were engaged in working against French interests" and Curzon's reply, "Many thanks. A good letter. I have used the... suggestion & it has been discussed in Cabinet C", folds(10)

***Joyce's condemnation of the Sykes-Picot agreement. The agreement between Sir Mark Sykes (sixth baronet, traveller and politician, 1879-1919) and François Georges-Picot (French diplomat, 1870-1951) divided up the Arab territories after the First World War between British, French and later, Russian and Italian spheres of influence. Joyce was a leading member of the British Intelligence office based in Cairo and T.E. Lawrence's commanding officer in the desert..

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