Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎236r] (471/544)

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LORD CURZON : Tt would not be a charge upon Indian Moslems, but upon the
Moslems of Mesopotamia.
MR. BALFOUR: I am thinking of this. You are restricting the area, and I
wanted to extend the area, if possible. What this clause says, is that he is to*receive,
it possible, from Syria and Mesopotamia as much as he got from the Turkish Empire
previously. That is rather a hard policy. If it was a proper thing for the Moslems
elsewhere to do it, I should have thought we might ignore the Turkish Empire.
•n L0R ?^ CU ?r Z( ? N 1 If WG do . that the other Powers will do the same. France
will say, “ Our Moslems in Algeria are as much interested as yours”; they would
prob ably give a larger sum than we should, ami there might be a rather unhealthy
competition. J
MIL BALFOUR : We should arrange among ourselves to see that he has not less
than he had before.
LORD ROBERT CECIL: Supposing we put it, “He ought not to suffer
pecuniarily from his change of sovereignty ” ?
MR. BALFOUR: That would meet my view, and then go on, “The subvention
formerly paid to him by the Turks should be replaced,” and so on. Then I sugo-est in
the last sentence we should strike out the words “ small ” and “ sole,” and leave it
in this way : “ There would, however, be no objection to the payment of a joint subsidy
by Great Britain, France, and Italy, for the purpose of keeping open free caravan
routes.” Then we might add that he ought not to suffer pecuniarily.
LORD CURZON: “The subvention formerly paid to him by the Turks should
be replaced as far as possible by annual subventions from the Arab State of Syria, and
possibly from the Arab States of Mesopotamia, but he should not be the loser.”
MR. MONTAGU : Would he not get more than before the war ?
SIR HAMILTON GRANT : As Sherif of Mecca, under a poor Government like
Turkey, he would not get a large subvention. He has had an enormous stipend, as Lord
Curzon says, for war purposes, and he will expect a considerable amount in excess of
what he got from the lurk, now that he is King of the Hejaz. Wb have to face
the fact that we shall have to pay him a great deal more, or otherwise he will probably
SIR LOUIS MALLET: He has asked for a monetary compensation, as repre
senting the Arab Federation, in respect of British control in Mesopotamia.
LORD CURZON : That has never been conceded by us. That is the old claim.
We could give it as an act of grace, but he has no real claim to it.
MR. BALFOUR: Is it your view—a most natural view—that it is to our interest
to continue something which is in strictness only justifiable because it pays us to give
him money ? Ought we, in other words, to go on, when the war is over, paying at least
part of a subsidy which was originally given solelv for war purposes ?
SIR HAMILTON GRANT : I think we must.
LORD CURZON : I do not think that was Sir Hamilton Grant’s point. I think
his point is that before the war the Sherif of Mecca, as he then was, received for a
limited area and for restricted purposes a certain subvention from the French Govern
ment. Largely owing to our act, quite apart from what has happened in the war, he
has become the Sovereign of a larger area and has greater responsibilities. He will say,
“ In proportion to the additional charge, you put upon me, by so much must you increase
the means by which I can meet it. 1 cannot look to Constantinople, and you must
make up the balance,” and it is an unanswerable position.
MR. BALFOLTR : The larger his empire the more he requires from outside ?
LORD CURZON: Certainly.
LORI) ROBERT CECIL : The Hejaz is a poor place.
SIR HAMILTON GRANT : We shall have to give him more. He has learned
to open his mouth very wide. As we have been so generous during the war, if we
suddenly drop to the Turkish pre-war standard we shall find he will definitely abdicate,
I think, which would be a disaster.