Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎143r] (285/544)

Document is the Property of His Britamiic Majeaty’fc Govemment]
Printed for the iTar Cafnnet. November 1918.
SECRET.
E.C. 36th Minutes.
r 4
WAR CABINET.
EASTERN COMMITTEE.
Minutes of a Meeting of the Eastern Committee held in Lord Curzons Room at the
Privy Council Office on Thursday, October 24, 1918, at 3 p.m.
Present:
P The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
(in the Chair).
Lieutenant-General the Right Hon. J. C. | The Right Hon. E. S. Montage, M.P.,
Smuts, K.C. j Secretary of State for India.
The Right Hon. Lord Robert Cecil. Major-General W. Thwaites, C.B.,
K.C., M.P., Assistant Secretary of State Director of Military Intelligence (repre-
for Foreign Affairs. senting the Chief of the Imperial
General Staff).
The following were also present:
Sir Mark Sykes, Bt., M.P., Foreign Lieutenant-General Sir H. V. Cox,
K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.S.L, Military Secre
tary, 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. .
Office.
Mr. L. Oliphant, C.M.G., Foreign Office.
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. .
Lieutenant-Colonel L. Storr, Secretary.
Major the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore, M.P., Assistant Secretary.
Distribution of 1. The Chairman stated that he wished to appeal to all the
Eastern Committee Departments to observe the instructions that had been agreed upon
aper8 ' with regard to the distribution of papers dealing with the questions
which come before the Eastern Committee. Each Department
should send copies to the Chairman and the Secretary. Instances
had arisen where the Chairman had received a copy of a telegram
or document which the Secretary had not received. Vice versa, the
Secretary had received documents which had not simultaneously
been sent to the Chairman. The Chairman should receive an
advance copy of all papers direct from the Departments in addition
to the copies circulated for distribution by the Secretary. He
instanced as examples of failure to carry out this system the fact
that the paper on “ Policy in Persia,” together with the draft telegram
to Sir Percy Cox, had been sent to the Secretary on the previous
evening without a copy being sent by the Foreign Office to the
Chairman. Further, he had received two telegrams from the War
Office with regard to the situation at Aden which had not been sent
to the Secretary. The work of the Committee could only be properly
discharged by the Secretary and himself if both received copies of
all papers at the moment of their issue.
Mr. Montagu stated that there were certain documents affecting
the East in general, and the area covered by the Eastern Committee
in particular, which were circulated to the War Cabinet, but not to *
B
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