blood got a mentions the word british collusion others talk of british betrayal the historian elizabeth monroe called it one of the greatest mistakes in our imperial history what do you think drove the british and the balfour then foreign secretary to issue that declaration but then some people say it was driven by you know wanting to protect imperial interests in the middle east others say it was anti semitic in some ways because some members of the british public wanted to get rid of jews from england and sent them to what do you think from your study of this issue drove that momentous decision i think we have to go to look at the ground this is the second penultimate of the first world war when the declaration is issued in november. you have to remember the context all the time. from person. in one nine hundred sixty in the year before the british army has suffered terrible losses in the blood of the western front it failed to make much headway against the turks we need to remember the ultimate empire the turks were fighting with germany against the allies against britain and france and rus