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Jordan hinted to the British his inclinations for his country to be part of the Baghdad

Pact on 9 November. The mission to allow Jordan entry into the Pact was assigned

to Britain’s Chief of Staff, Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer. Dulles had earlier

warned that any ‘move to expand the Baghdad Pact would probably deny us

Nasser’s cooperation’, but his advice had fallen on deaf ears. 443 The undertaking

proved disastrous to Jordan and the region and accelerated the departure of John

Bagot Glubb Pasha from the Arab Legion with its consequences for Bahrain as it

hastened Belgrave’s exit as Part Three and Four of this thesis examines.

Templer’s mission to Jordan lasted from 6 to 14 December and was met with

aggressive public scorn and resentment. A number of Ministers from the Jordanian

Cabinet protested at Jordan’s involvement in the Pact. 444 It was hoped that through

Jordan’s inclusion that the then current British-Jordanian Treaty be substituted with

the Pact. 445 Egypt did its part in attacking Jordan’s entry into the Pact, Glubb

recalled the Voice of the Arabs claimed to Jordanians that joining the Pact was ‘a

trick to help Israel’, as Israel would later join the alliance and thus be forced onto

Jordan as an ally. Templer tried in vain to counter that argument by stressing that

the Pact’s charter did not allow other states’ entry unless it was unanimously

approved by all members. 446

443 BDEEP, Series B, Part III, vol. 4, ‘Egypt and the Defence of the Middle East’ 1953-1956. Doc. 614:
FO 371/115469, [Alpha and the Baghdad Pact]: letter from Mr Dulles to Mr Macmillan opposing
moves to expand the Baghdad Pact. Minutes by C A E Shuckburgh and Sir I Kirkpatrick, 6 December
1955.
444 J. Lunt, Glubb Pasha: A Biography (London: 1984), 191.
445 ‘Jordan Reported Set to Join Baghdad Pact’, New York Times, 14 December 1955, 15.
446 Glubb, A Soldier with the Arabs, 395.

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