John Fisher explores the acquisitive thinking which, from the autumn of 1914, drove the Mesopotamian Expedition, and examines the political issues, international and imperial, delegated to a War Cabinet committee under Lord Curzon. The motives of Curzon and others in attempting to obtain a privileged political position in the Hejaz are studied in the context of inter-Allied suspicions and Turkish intrigues in the Arabian Peninsula. This is a penetrating study of war imperialism, when statesmen contemplated strong measures of control in several areas of the Middle East.