Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎80r] (159/348)

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that an Allied Government, fully acquainted with the situation, as it must be, and-
affecting to march at our side in close co-operation for the settlement of the East,
should conclude such an arrangement without any reference to ourselves. I had
been a warm supporter of the Italian Alliance throughout; British armies had
fought in the war on Italian soil for the defence of Italian interests and Italian
territory; our policy with regard to Germany had been substantially the same. It
was, therefore, a matter of much surprise and distress to me that Italy should
conceive herself at liberty—without any interests at all, or with only insignificant
interests, in the parts of the world to which I had referred—to strike out a policy
of her own, sometimes in divergence from us, anyhow without our knowledge. I
thought that the Ambassador could render a real service to his country, about the
continued friendship of which with ourselves he had often spoken to me, by
reporting frankly to his official superiors the doubts and apprehensions that were
growing in my mind.
The Ambassador, who was a good deal concerned, at what I had said, but who
did not at any stage express dissent, undertook to do as I had asked.
I may add that, as regards the pro-Kemalist policy of his Government, I was
able to point out with a certain amount of sardonic satisfaction that it had so far
been a disastrous failure, inasmuch as, while Count Sforza’s London Agreement
had been repudiated in Angora, the Italians had found themselves in so perilous
a position at Adalia that they had had to withdraw from that port. This failure
would, I thought, render it easier for the Italian Government to adopt a different
and more candid policy in the future.
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.