Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎167v] (334/544)

* E.C. 2243, 2550, 2570.
1(3
British protectorate. There is a rather ambiguous phrase in Captain Wilson’s
telegram, “and on clear understanding, on which the inhabitants ot the country
themselves rely, that a protectorate will in due course be declared.’ He does not
mean “ declare by a formal instrument ” the creation of a British protectorate, but
only that it shall be there in the background.
GENERAL SMUTS: That is a very good telegram.
LORD CURZON: I think we had better on another day take up the remainder
of the case.
GENERAL SMUTS: Is it possible to have a statement of facts about the
other areas'?
LORD CURZON: There are two memoranda about the Caucasus. But they
are not a statement of facts. We also want the different opinions about it.
GENERAL SMUTS : There is Batum and the Black Sea. We should have to
take a line at the Conference about these things. What line are we going to take.
MR. OLIPHANT: We have three Papers* in the Foreign Office which we ought
to have in which these questions are discussed. No actual policy has been laid
down except that we thought we might get the French out of Syria by pushing
further north. Armenia we are getting into, and right up into the three C aucasian
Republics.
LORD CURZON: That is a suggestion, but I want something different We
have arrived at a quick and easy solution to-day because the history has 'been before
us I took the trouble to do that, but how am I to do the same with regard to the other
questions ? There is not the same volume of literature, but we ought to know what
the Government has done. I do not know. There is this question about Syria. We
have been discussing the Eastern aspect of the case, but there remains what we have
done, and what we have said to the French, and how far we are committed to Faisal.
GENERAL SMUTS: We ought to have that, and I am anxious to have it as
the basis of our case.
MR. MONTAGU: Is not time of importance, too? It looks as it the Peace
negotiations will be begun early next month.
LORD CURZON- Not till the middle of December, and Mesopotamia will
not be the first thing taken. Perhaps it will not be taken before January next, but
we must be ready by the middle of December.
MR MONTAGU: it seems we are not ready with any of the cases against
Turkey at all, so far as the Committee is concerned. I do not know when the Brief,
which is being prepared under the direction of General Smuts, will be ready.
GENERAL SMUTS: The Brief cannot be settled before the policy is settled.
It is with a view to settling a policy that we are here.
MR MONTAGU: It is important that we should have these negotiations, to
consider first of all the policy to be discussed, then have the Brief prepared, and
then be ready to negotiate within six weeks.
LORD CURZON: We have cleared a good deal of ground to-day. I do not
know what Sir Erie Richards thinks, but with the aid of the Papers and the notes
taken to-day, the elements of the case are there. The same will apply to two other
areas First. Caucasia, Trans-Caucasus, extending down to and including Armenia
ithey are two parts of one question. It is upon that that I want not only the
suggestions of S P ir Eyre Crowe and others, but the facts of what we have dona
Then thirdly, there are Syria and Palestine. I do not know which we had betted
take next. We will take whichever you like, say the Caucasus.
MR. OLIPHANT: We can get that ready.
LORD CURZON : And then Syria and Palestine.
We will fix a meeting provisionally for Monday afternoon at 3 o’clock, and
if we have to alter the time we will.