A Handbook of Syria (including Palestine). NAVAL STAFF INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT.

First Edition. I.D. 1215. 8vo. Original black cloth, gilt lettering to spine; light wear to extremities, several tiny scuffs and stains to boards, small area of shiny tape residue to spine, a few short tears to hinges (not affecting stability of binding), otherwise near very good. Interior exceptionally clean and fresh. 723 pp. Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June, A scarce wartime handbook on Greater Syria, therefore covering present-day Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Prepared by the Naval Staff Intelligence Department it includes an impressive range of information on everything from Military History to Agriculture. This copy, as with others we have seen, does not include the fourteen pages of illustrations apparently found in some examples. The note at the start of the handbook states it was something of a work in progress, originally intended as a two-volume publication (with a second vol. dedicated to 'Routes and Communications'), but stalled due to "the occupation of the country and the signing of the Armistice" (p.[5]). Scarce. LibraryHub locates five examples in the UK, at the University of Birmingham, BL, KCL, Oxford and UCL. OCLC adds no further examples, with no holding libraries in North America.