Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎175v] (350/544)

16
experience of the war has taught us the supreme importance of this region, with a view
to the countries further east, over which it is essential, in the interest of India and our
Empire, that we should exercise some measure of political control. A hostile force in
possession of this region of the Caucasus would turn the flank of the British position in
Asia, as it very nearly did in Persia and Trana-Caspia in the course of the past six
months. Further, anybody can easilv see how a state of chronic disorder among the
people in this area, many of whom are hereditary enemies, would immediately
turn the Caucasus into an Asiatic Balkans threatening the peace of that part of
the world, as the similar jealousies and ambitions of the Balkans have done
in the eastern part of Europe. Anv sort of anarchy, disorder, or Bolshevism there must
inevitably react upon our whole position in Persia and the countries lying to the east of
Persia. There is the further question of the great commercial and material interests in
that part of the world. Now that the Dardanelles are open and the Black Sea is
accessible, Batum must in the future become the great commercial port of Persia.
Hitherto we have onlv precariously forced our wav into Persia with our goods from the
roadsteads that exist in the. Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and by the overland route—which has been
closed for long—from Trezibond. Once you have the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus, and
the Back Sea open, with the main line of railway across the Caucasus, the commercial
importance of Batum, which has been the port of export for oil, will be enormously
increased, and it wbll become the emporium for the central parts of Asia. Therefore we
are vitally interested in Batum.
Then, as regards Baku, Lord Robert Cecil let fall a remark with wEich I agree, that
Baku is of great international interest. It is impossible to allow the great oil resources
of Baku to fall into the hands of a tiny little mountain Republic like Daghestan, or into
the hands of a very doubtful element like Turkish Azerbaijan. It is a great inter
national interest. The city itself is a cosmopolitan city ; I have never seen one more so
in the world ; it is the centre of a good many of the scoundrels of mankind, and recent
events have shown how hopelessly divided the population is. The idea that the Tatars,
the Armenians, or the Bolsheviks, or any other party could permanently hold Baku and
control the vast resources there, is one that cannot be entertained for a moment.
Therefore it is essential to us, looking at it from our point of view, that some form of
order and government should ultimately emerge in the Caucasian regions.
Look for a moment at the States that are involved. The westernmost is Georgia.
Georgia, quite apart from its history, is the most highly developed, progressive, and
cultured of these States. It has an independent history and moral force of its own.
The history of Georgia in the last few years has been dramatic and varied. It formed
for a short time a part of the Trans-Caucasian Federation, the headquarters of which
were Tiflis, and to which I referred just now. When that Hederation broke down,
Georgia declared its own independence, but, in its desire to fortify its own rather feeble
powers, it made terms both with the Turks and the Germans. To the Turks it ceded
the Mohammedan areas around Batum, when that place was handed back to Turkey by
the Bolsheviks, and it entered into close relations with Germany. The German object
in getting hold of Georgia was two-fold. First, it was in order to get the manhood
of the Georgian people, who are the best fighting soldiers in the Caucasus; secondly, it
was in order to obtain control of the great manganese deposits which are found in that
port of the world. Therefore, you have Georgia, at the present moment, the most
respectable of these States, the most entitled to independence, the one which we should
most certainly back, and to which our first duty should be to free it from its own ieeble-
ness and the shackles which it has imposed upon itself. On the other hand, the
question of Georgia is complicated by the fact that Batum is the main port ol Georgia,
and upon the international importance of that I have already laid stress. Another point
is that Tiflis, the capital of the Caucasus, is not merely the capital ot Georgia, but the
capital of the whole region of the Caucasus. 1 think our general policy should be —
and this is the line taken by the Foreign Office—to encourage the independence of
Georgia by every means in our power.
I will next say a word or two about Daghestan, the little mountain State on the
west coast of the Caspian Sea, stretching from the eastern boundaries on the north side
of the Caucasus. This little State is inhabited by mountaineers ; they were conquered
with great difficulty by Russia; they are Moslems and not Christian in creed, and their
importance consists in the fact that their territory gives them control of Petrovsk, from
whence the line of railway runs to the oil wells of Grozny ; Derbend, Which is one of
the few ports on the west coast of the Caspian Sea ; and the coast running down to the
immediate proximity of Baku. All reasons, geographical, racial, and so on, tend to
throw Daghestan into the orbit of Russia rather than that of the Caucasus ; but just as