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 PREFACE

events of the last war and the post-war period have made us realize as never before the importance of the Arab world, the world that lies athwart the great international highway of trade and transit connecting the three historic continents. The military operations in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, the use of the supply route through Persia to Russia and the holding of historic inter-Allied conferences at Casablanca, Cairo and Teheran called attention to the region's strategic position. More recent events relating to Zionism and the East-West conflict are making it clear that the establishment of a firm peace may depend to some extent on the solution of some of the region's political problems. These problems involve potential conflicts between all of the larger European countries, and they cannot be dealt with without affecting the politics of a much larger area in Africa, Asia and south-eastern Europe, where 420,000,000 Moslems form an important part of the population.

Oil in Arab lands has in recent years loomed higher and higher as a factor in the life and economy of the people and in international affairs. The greatest known store of this liquid energy lies in that soil. Its proved reserves are estimated at about two-thirds of the total known to exist on earth. Millions upon millions of pounds sterling and of American dollars are invested in its industry.

Our interest in the region is not merely political or economic. We have long had significant cultural tics with the Near East, through the British and American schools and colleges which have played a leading part in its intellectual development and through the work of large numbers of missionaries. v