Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎176v] (352/544)

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* E.C. 2527.
round about it. Is it possible to create some form of temporary international control in
this region pending the assumpt on by France of these larger responsibilities, which
she may or may not assume—I doubt myself if she will
GENERAL SMUTS : France or America ?
LORD CURZON : Pending that, we have to look to peace and order in that
country. Is it not desirable to contemplate a temporary occupation there which might
even take the form in most circumstances thoroughly to be deprecated—of international
control ? I see that General Thomson, at Baku, in one of his telegrams,* says that it
would be essential to have an Allied gendarmerie on this line. I suggest to the
Committee—I do not think it appears in any of the papers put forward—that we
should contemplate for the time being an Allied occupation of this country, an Allied
occupation which might be undertaken by ourselves, the French, and the Americans, or
in the last resort by ourselves alone, which would involve the holding of Batum, Tiflis,
and Baku, the policing of the line, the control of railways, telegraphs, and so on, and,
in fact, the giving of some kind of backbone and stability which will enable these rather 4 %
rudimentary States, on either side of the line, to make their way into existence. I
merely throw that out as a suggestion, because whether America or France ultimately
takes it up there must be an interval before they can do so, and in that interval
everything is tottering. You want the presence of some Power to keep order now, and a
you want to secure in the future that there shall be a free way from the Black Sea to
the Caspian. These are the ideas that I have formed in my.own mind, from reading the
papers with regard to the Caucasus which have been circulated.
LORD ROBERT CECIL : I should have thought that there would have been
great difficulty about an Allied occupation. I believe we have sent two divisions to
Batum.
GENERAL THWAITES : One division has been ordered to go and another one is
held in readiness to go. It is a question of shipping.
LORD ROBERT CECIL: Yes. I doubt very much whether the French would
agree to send troops there at the present time. The only way in which you can get the
French to take an interest in the place is to hand it over to them. You have to
consider the political situation here, and I am rather afraid of our being entangled in
any considerable military commitments in the Caucasus. I do not think that would be
at all well received.
LORD CURZON : 1 must have expressed myself badly. I meant that there
should be some temporary Government set up at Tiflis, with some force (which should
not be a large force) to control the railway from Batum to Baku. It would be necessary
to hold Batum, but in any case we must hold Baku.
SIR LOUIS MALLET: I have a paper on the subject by Mr. Stevens, our consul
at Batum.
LORD ROBERT CECIL : Apparently he talks of 60,000 men as the minimum
necessary for dealing with the whole question—that is, the three States, is it not ?
SIR LOUIS MALLET: Yes. I .
LORD CURZON : Does he want to call the new States into existence?
LORD ROBERT CECIL: He shares your view and says that 60,000 men should
be provided, 20,000 by each of three Powers.
MR. MONTAGU : What is the point of it all ? Why do we want to take any
responsibility? It is right that we should want to, but is it necessary ?
LORD ROBERT CECIL : I am rather disposed to agree with you. My own
view is that we should hold Baku because of the immense value of the oil deposits.
MR. MONTAGU :• Yes. We have agreed, as a temporary measure, to hold the
Batum-Baku Railway; we are doing it, and preventing any disturbance to the south of
that. I should have thought that we should remain there until the French, or whoever
it is that is to take possession of the country, does so.
LORD ROBERT CECIL : As to “ taking possession,” we must be careful. I do
not in the least contemplate that any European Power will be able to take possession of
these Caucasus districts, nor do I think it at all desirable. They would be perfectly
insane to do it. The Russians had 150.000 men there to hold it. That could not be