Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎142r] (283/290)

143,
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.
Printed for the Foreign Office.
SECRET.
[I.D.C.E., 42nd Minutes.]
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
Minutes of a Meeting held in the Secretary of State s Jioom at the Foreign Office on
Tuesday, December 7, 1920, at 11 a.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.L, G.C.I.E. (in the Chair.)
The Right Hon. Austen Chamberlain,
M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Sir George Bahstow, K.C.B., Treasury.
Colonel W. H. Gribbon, C.M.G., C.B.E.,
War Office.
Colonel C. A. Ker, C.M.G., C.B.E.,
D.S.O., War Office.
Commander G. H. Lang, D.S.O., R.N.,
Admiralty.
Lieutenant R. C. D. Fletcher, R.N.,
Admiralty.
Major H. W. Young, D.S.O
The Right Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.R.,
Secretary of State for India.
Sir Arthur Hirtzel, K.C.B., India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Mr. J. E. Shuckburgh, C.B., India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Alajor R. Marrs, India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Sir John Tilley, K.C.M.G., C.B., Foreign
Office.
Mr. K. Cornwallis, C.B.E., D.S.O.,
Foreign Office.
, Foreign Office (Secretary).
The Committee had before them Foreign Office Memorandum
on Arabian Policy (I.D.C.E., No. 7263); India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Memorandum
on Arabia (I.D.C.E., No. 7264) ; Report on the political situation at
Nejd by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Bahrein (I.D.C.E., No. 7272); and
connected papers.
Subsidies. The Chairman explained that the meeting had been called in
the first instance at the request of the Secretary of State lor India
to discuss the question of the subsidy to Ibn Saud. The Chancellor
of the Exchequer had requested that opportunity should be taken
of the meeting to discuss the whole financial bearing of the policy
of His Majesty’s Government in Arabia. A large number of papers
had been circulated to the Conference for their information. It was
not proposed that all the questions dealt with in these papers should
now be examined, but he anticipated that a certain number of them
would arise in the course of the discussion.
Mr. Chamberlain explained that what he was particularly
anxious that the Conference should consider was the question of
subsidies and of financial policy. In the Foreign Office Memorandum
the suggestion had been made that the policy of subsidies should
be continued. He observed from the statement in paragraph 11
that a good many subsidies were actually being paid, and he would
be glad to know what it was proposed that His Majesty’s Govern
ment should accept as financial liabilities in the Arabian Peninsula.
376 [5084] B