“Now about Sherif [al Faroki]. His plans are to slip into the Hedjaz, have a chat about tactics with the Sherif, slip out again, raise the 10 Syrian officers & the 600 rank & file we took on the canal, add to them 50 officers and 2000 men now in India, & drop into the Hedjaz heavily this time. Nuri Shaalan has promised to help him, & can cut telegraph wires, tear up the Hedjaz line, & provide transport, which will enable them to proclaim the Sherif Khalifa, & roll up Syria (with the help of Syrians) from the tail end. It will come off, if the first landing & attack on Medina succeed. The G.O.C. is shy of it, Clayton is for it: I – but you will guess what I’m at:-”

T.E. Lawrence to Captain George Lloyd (Lawrence of Arabia:
The Selected Letters, edited by Malcolm Brown, republished
by Little Books, 2005)

When a young Arab officer crossed the lines at Gallipoli, offering
to provide information on the Arab nationalist movements, all Lawrence’s hopes of an uprising in Syria were suddenly revived.
Debriefings held in Cairo with Sherif Mohammed al Faroki confirmed widespread support for Sherif Hussein among the Arab
nationalists; but there was a warning, too, that the Arabs might turn to Turkey and Germany, if Britain failed to promise her support.