Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎40r] (79/348)

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s Government.]
SECRET.
The Turkish Situation and the American Government.
IN pursuance of a decision arrived at by the Allied Conference yesterday, I asked
the American Ambassador to call upon me this afternoon, in order that I might
communicate to him in outline the conclusions at which the Conference had arrived in
respect of Constantinople and the situation in Turkey.
I commenced by reminding him that, when the Conference was about to assemble
in London a few weeks earlier, I had written him a formal letter asking him if the
American Government desired to be represented, and assuring him of a warm welcome
at the Conference should the answer be in the affirmative. To this he had replied, on
the instructions of his Government, that they did not wish him to attend. He had,
however, at the same time, said to me that if, during the Conference, I was in a position
to give him any information as to what was going on, he would be glad to receive it.
It was in pursuance of this suggestion that I had now asked him to call upon me.
The reason why I had not done so earlier was this : An agreement had been
arrived at by the Conference quite early in the day that it would be very undesirable
to make piecemeal announcements of the decisions—for the most part provisional in
character—that were reached from day to day. Such announcements might produce
an unfair or unfortunate impression, might provoke an agitation which ought to be
avoided, and might even compromise the future of the Peace itself. Only one exception
had been made to this general rule, and that was the declaration in respect of the
retention of the Turk in Constantinople. It had not, I said, been officially intended to
make this announcement to the exclusion of any other ; but the fact that, after the
decision had been taken, it had leaked out in the press with what appeared to be
official sanction had rendered it impossible that it should be any longer concealed, and
this particular conclusion had therefore been made public to the world. Th£ remainder
of the proceedings of the Conference had, however, been conducted under the reserve
which I had described, and any account that had appeared in the papers of our decisions
from day to day was in any case unofficial, and in the great majority of cases incorrect.
Such had been the nature of our proceedings during the last three weeks, when
there had broken abruptly upon us the news of the serious events in Cilicia. I described
to the Ambassador the circumstances in which Great Britain, who had conquered and
occupied these territories with forces almost exclusively her own in the course of the
war, had during the last few months handed over Cilicia and Syria to the military occu
pation of the French. Our responsibility in those regions had then ceased, and as to what
had passed there since we had only indirect information. It appeared, however, that as
early as last January the French found themselves in great difficulties with the Turks,
particularly at Marash in Cilicia. Their military forces, although not inconsiderable, were
mainly composed of other than white troops, and their coloured soldiers, whether
Algerians or Senegalese, were perhaps not likely to produce a great impression upon a
hostile or fanatical Turkish population ; while, in a country where the Armenians were so
little regarded, the troops belonging to the Armenian forces which had been created by
France for service in those parts might have provoked even less friendly feelings.
Accordingly a situation had developed in which, even before the French were
beleaguered in Marash, massacres of Armenians by the Turks had begun. It appeared
that, after a siege of some duration, the French forces had been compelled to evacuate
Marash, and that, in the course of their retreat, in which they were accompanied by
many thousands of the population, the massacres had been renewed on a larger scale.
The figures of the victims of these massacres reported to us varied from 15,000 to
30,000. Possibly the larger totals were exaggerated, but our information tended to
show that, in all probability, as many as 15,000 had perished. In any case the crime
had been great and appalling.
Further, this was a case in which the Americans themselves appeared to have a
direct interest. For years America had evinced a humanitarian and philanthropic
interest in those regions, where she had both missionaries and schools. In the course
of these events, two American citizens, Messrs. Perry and Johnson, had been murdered.
Many others had been compelled to evacuate Marnsh with the French, leaving their
schools unprotected, with the result that many of the children were said to have been
killed. Doubtless the Ambassador had fuller information about this side of the case
than I had, but it was one in which American interests and American honour appeared
to be directly involved.
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