Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎141v] (282/544)

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APPENDIX (B).
E.C.-1915.
Future Government in the Middle East.
Copy of a Letter from Lord R. Cecil to M. Pichon covering a Draft Memorandum.
(Secret.)
Dear M. Pichon,
IN reference to the affairs of Syria of which you spoke to me to-day, I have great
pleasure in sending you the annexed memoradum to which the Prime Minister agrees.
It has not yet been approved by the Cabinet, and until that has taken place it must be
treated as to that extent provisional.
Yours very sincerely,
(Initialled) B. C.
Draft Memorandum.
British Embassy y Paris, October 8, 1918.
His Majesty’s Government are prepared to accept the arrangement reached at the
Conference held at the Foreign Office on the 30th September upon the understanding
that it is to be treated solely as providing for the situation caused by the recent advance
of General Allenby’s force into Syria, and is to be deemed to refer only to the territories
occupied, or to be occupied, by that force.
With regard to the future government of the other territories mentioned in the
Anglo-French Convention of 1916, His Majesty’s Government think it right to point out
that the general position has so much changed since that agreement was entered into
that its provisions do not in all respects appear suitable to present conditions. Not
only has the military position in Mesopotamia, Palestine, and byria completely altered,
but two political changes of vast importance have taken place. r Ihe United States
have come into the war and Russia has gone out. It is manifest on the one hand that
America cannot be ignored in any settlement of the future of these countries, and
particularly of Syria and Palestine. And on the other the arrangements contemplated
for the north-eastern part of Armenia have been completely upset by the collapse of
Russia. A further difficulty is caused by clause 9 of the Treaty of London, which
recognises the claims of Italy in connection with the Eastern Mediterranean. Ihe
provisional suggestions made at Saint-Jean de Maurienne for meeting these claims have
lapsed, and, indeed, would in any case be difficult now to enforce without protests from
Greece and even from Turkey. While calling attention to these points His Majesty s
Government feel that it would be useless to attempt a settlement of them at the present
moment, and they suggest that they should form the subject of fresh conversations in
which the Governments of Italy and the United States, as well as the french and
British Governments, should be invited to take part.
(Signed) ROBERT CECIL.
2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W.,
October 12, 1918.
E.C.-1943.
APPENDIX (C).
I circulate the following to my colleagues on the Eastern Committee. The
suggestion appears to me timely and useful.
(Initialled) R. C.
Foreign Office, October 15, 1918.
Memorandum by Sir Mark Sykes.
In accordance with your request, I beg to submit the following memorandum on
our conversation this afternoon.