Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎173r] (345/544)

IX
LORD OURZON : Meanwhile, we have to give an answer. I think the question
is this. If you turn to the French you know what will happen. They will say “ Very
well, in so far as you are dealing with Armenia from the Southern side we are vitally
interested,” and they will be only too happy to say “ By all means, come along and do
it through us.” But time will he wasted. Meanwhile, we have General Claytons
telegram* saying that there are 40,000 Armenians, and that 17,000 are destitute.
LORD ROBERT CECIL : Those are at Aleppo?
LORD CURZON : Yes. The French may say, “That is our interest, come along
and join with us there; that concerns us.” The French may say, “ In the North we
have nothing to do with it,” and they have nothing whatever to do with it ; and I
should be most reluctant, unless we decided upon the policy of France being the
mandatory Power for all the Caucasus in the future, to -idmit that the French had a
decisive right to say what should be done from the Northern side.
LORD ROBERT CECIL : No, not a decisive right. We could scarcely say to the
Americans, “ We will let you go through the Dardanelles,” and the rest of it, without
consulting the French at all.
LORD CURZON : That is as regards the Dardanelles. Is it not really the right
thing to say that we must consult our Allies about sending through the Dardanelles ?
but when it comes to Armenia, in the North, we should say to America, “We shall be
only too happy to join you, that is a matter in which we are concerned equally with
yourselves,” but in the South, “ Consult the French.”
LORD ROBERT CECIL: I should have thought the better plan would have
been to have said, “ As far as we are concerned, go ahead, we do not propose to
interfere. This is a charitable undertaking and nothing to do with politics at all. You
wish to feed the Armenians as they are starving ; very well, go and feed them. But
we ought to tell you that the French have great interests there, and we admit they
have them in the South, and probably before you do anything there you had better
consult them, but that is a matter for you.”
SIR LOUIS MALLET : They have great interests in the North, the railway,
and so on.
LORD ROBERT CECIL: In the North as well?
LORD CURZON : Are you going, by this reference of the Americans to the
French, tacitly to admit
LORD ROBERT CECIL: I should not say anything about the interests of
France on the North in Armenia.
LORD CURZON : I think America will recognise that it would be difficult for us
to say, without consulting the French at all, that they can go through the Dardanelles,
and all the rest of it. The Straits are in Allied occupation, and therefore no doubt
America will think it desirable to consult the French. As to the South, the French
have got interests in Alexandretta, and so om We cannot dispute that, after the
Sykes-Picot Agreement. In that case also we think the French should be consulted.
LORD ROBERT CECIL: I should say, “As far as we are concerned we are quite
willing, and very likely you will think it desirable to consult the French.”
LORD CURZON : Do you not think we ought to associate ourselves with the
enquiry in some shape or another :
LORD ROBERT CECIL : I do not think so.
LORD CURZON : With the Armenians ?
LORD ROBERT CECIL: I do not think I should bother about it. We
certainly would do anything we could to assist.
LORD CURZON : That means the whole thing would be out of our hands. The
Americans bring in the French, so clearly the French should be consulted, and the
Americans shoufd be told that the French have interests there.
LORD ROBERT CECIL: No, I should not tell them that. 1 should say they
would probably think it desirable to consult the French.