Lawrence of Arabia

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA'S MIDDLE EAST MAP ON SHOW

Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Kuwait
Oct 12 2005

LONDON, Oct 12 (KUNA) -- A newly-discovered map showing Lawrence of Arabia's proposals for the reconstruction of the Middle East after the First World War is to go on display for the first time, it was announced here Wednesday.

The map, about to be displayed in the Imperial War Museum, in London, shows TE Lawrence opposed the allied agreement which eventually determined the borders of Iraq as it is today.

Lawrence, who presented his proposals to the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet in November 1918, suggested instead that there should be separate governments for the predominantly Kurdish and Arab areas in what is now Iraq, and for the Mesopotamian Arabs and Armenians in Syria, the Imperial War Museum said.

These suggested frontiers would have replaced those drawn up in the allied agreement of 1916, negotiated by Sir Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot.

(parts ommitted)