Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎89v] (178/544)

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of telegrams from various sources, which have to be collated and digested. Were it
not for the inexhaustible capacity for work and indefatigable industry of our Chair
man. I do not see how the Committee could discharge its functions at all.
In the Paper which I addressed to the War Cabinet on the 4th November last
year from Egypt, I ventured to suggest that the proper method of handling the affairs
of Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, &c., was by a new department roughly
analogous to the new Overseas Trade Department, a condominium of the Foreign
Office and the 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. , and an Under-Secretary representing the new Depart
ment in Parliament. Our relations to these countries, which might range from
actual possession through protectorate, but never to complete sovereignty, differen
tiated them in my opinion from the ordinary activities of the Foreign Office, and
ought to be separated from them. They were so largely administrative and so little
technically diplomatic that they seemed to me to want special recruitment and a
separate cadre. This, however, was not intended as an immediate war measure. It
might be preferable to have a Secretary of State for the Middle East, a remedy which
I have reason to believe Lord Curzon, with the great authority of his experience,
would not disfavour. This modification of my proposal would have my cordial
support, for of course the new Secretary of State would act in co-operation with the
other two Offices primarily concerned.
But this remedy would seem to me to be difficult, if not impossible, during war
time. The difficulty of finding the personnel for a new office is very real, and during
war time, at any rate, the War Office must of course be taken into account in what,
as I have stated in my premises, seems to me to be developing into an important
war area.
I therefore would suggest that the Eastern Committee should continue to exist.
There would be advantages in making it a Committee of Ministers only, with of
course expert advice and assistance available in the room at the time of its meetings.
I would also suggest that it should not attempt actual executive action, but that it
should be a Cabinet Committee, discussing, on behalf of the Cabinet, Cabinet matters,
questions of policy, leaving details of the conduct of the policy to the Departments
concerned.
It might be desirable to have a sub-committee of the Eastern Committee, con
sisting of an Under-Secretary of State or an Assistant Under-Secretary of State
from the Foreign Office and from the 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. , with the Director of Military
Intelligence from the War Office; the duties of the Sub-Committee being to thresh
cut everything, and to give decisions except upon matters of high policy or of such
great importance as should go before the Ministers of the Committee for decision.
These are, however, merely modifications of existing procedure and composition,
on which the Cabinet and the Chairman of the Committee can offer better opinion
than I can attempt to do.
Turning now to the executive pToblem, I would discuss it first from the political
standpoint, and only secondly from the military standpoint.
I would suggest as regards political affairs that the present system of obtaining
political information is very unsatisfactory.
1 . The system of “dual control,” by which certain British Consulates in Persia
are staffed by officers of the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Consular Service in direct subordination to the
Minister at Teheran, and others by officers of the Indian Political Department,
primarily responsible to the Government of India, prevailed for many years before
the war. It entailed certain inconveniences and at times gave rise to friction; but
on the whole it worked reasonably well as a peace-time arrangement. His Majesty’s
Government received recommendations, &c., independently from the Minister and
from the Government of India, and in the event of a conflict of opinion, as would
sometimes happen, the question was threshed out between the Foreign Office and
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. , and a decision reached after due consideration.
2. The conditions created by the war, or at any rate its recent developments in
the East, have profoundly modified the situation. Persia has virtually become a
theatre of hostilities. Columns of British troops are operating on the East frontier,
in the North-West, and in the Pars Province in the South; while a strong local force
(the South Persia Rifles) has been raised in the last-named region, nominally in the
service of the Persian Government, but actually controlled and directed by ourselves.
3. Under the stress of these complications, it is not too much to say that the old
system of political control has broken down. A dispute is raging at the moment
between the Consul at Shiraz and the officer in command of the South Persia Rifles
(Sir P. Sykes) over the latter’s claims to be consulted in political matters. The