The Middle East Centre for Arab Studies was established by the
British Army during
World War II in
Jerusalem. Between 1944-1946 it functioned in the requisitioned
Austrian Hospice, where it was headed by the English
Arabist Bertram Thomas. Its purpose was to teach officers
Arabic language and culture. After a short post-war intermezzo in the town of
Zarqa in
Transjordan, in 1947 it moved to its final location in
Shemlan, in the
Mount Lebanon Governorate of
Lebanon. In Lebanon the college was reopened by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the
British Government. The college gained notoriety as a "spy school" after it was publicly denounced as such by
Kamal Jumblatt speaking in the
Lebanese Parliament. Official documents affirm MECAS as a civilian institution, though its value and connections to espionage are well documented. An initial note on its pre-1944 function was that the "Centre would be to train Army Officers for military and political intelligence". However, after the handover to Arabist civilians the director of the institution protested such usage, asking for the cancellation of spying orders from
Middle East Land Forces involving six students in 1951. The connections to the British establishment remained strong however, with past alumni including the Head of MI6, several senior staff at the
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and a director general of the
British Council. The British/Soviet double agent
George Blake, who was a student at the school, was taken from there to
Heathrow, where he was formally arrested on espionage charges. The Civil War made the situation increasingly difficult, and in 1976, MECAS was temporarily evacuated before closing altogether in 1978. The property was sold in 1995 and the buildings repurposed for the Shemlan Social Institution, which accommodates "special needs beneficiaries with mental and learning disabilities". ==Cultural references==