Diary kept during ELS's time as First Minister to the republics of Syria and the Lebanon. Subjects include: meeting Winston Churchill [Prime Minister] in February 1943; returning to Tobruk [Libya]; the promise of free elections in Syria; tensions between ELS and the French; a war council in Cairo [Egypt] called by Richard Casey [Minister of State Resident in the Middle East], May 1943; tensions between followers of General Charles de Gaulle and General Henri Giraud; ELS's work towards promoting Syrian and Lebanese independence, the Foreign Office's reluctance to support him and her fears for his position; the French coup against the nationalist Lebanese government and arrest of the president, Bishara al-Khoury; ELS's talks with Churchill and [Maurice] Harold Macmillan [Minister Resident at Allied Headquarters in North-West Africa, later 1st Lord Stockton]; her distress at the departure of Richard Casey and his wife.

Also includes loose pages of draft memoirs on the work of the unit [? "Journey Down a Blind Alley"], a calendar of dates and chapter headings (cut out).