Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎42r] (83/290)

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[This Document is the Property q£ Has Britannic Majesty s Government.^
Printed for the Foreign Office. March 1919.
SECRET.
[I.D.C.E., 12th Minutes.]
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
fl/nutes of a Conference held at the Foreign Office on Monday,
March 10, 1919, at 5 p.m.
Present :
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
(in the Chair).
Sir Reginald Wingate, G.C.B., G.C.V.O.,
K.C.M.G., D.S.O., High Commissioner
for Egypt.
Mr. H. St. J. Philby.
Mr. G. J. Kidston, Foreign Office.
Lieutenant-General Sir H. V. Cox, K.C.B.,
K.C.M.G., C.S.L, Military Secretary,
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Mr. E. H. Jones (Secretary).
The Conference had before them telegrams Nos. 321 and 327.
dated the 1st and 2nd March, 1919, from Sir M. Cheetham Cairo,
King Hussein and
Ibn Sand.
telegram No. 61 a from General Clayton, Cairo, dated the 4th March,
1919, and a note by Mr. Philby, dated the 6 th March, 1919.
The Chairman said the question of King Hussein and Ibn Saud
was once more before the Conference. At the last meeting on this
subject (I.D.C E. 10 th Minutes) a prolonged discussion had ended
in agreement to send Foreign Office telegram No. 273, dated the 26th
February, to Cairo and Baghdad, stating that we deprecated
lighting and were prepared to renew our offer of a Boundary
Commission if both sides agreed to abide by its decision , failing
agreement they w r ould be allowed to light it out among themselves,
with the proviso that if Ibn Saud advanced westwaid of the disputed
area into the Hejaz proper, every assistance^ necessary 1 troops
excepted) would be given to King Hussein. 1 his policy had had
the misfortune to be condemned independently and with equal
emphasis by both Bagdad and Cairo. Before he knew what Bagdad
Wilson would say, Cheetham in his telegram No. 321, had doubted
the wisdom of our solution ; and to the surprise of evei v body, \ ilson
himself had come down heavily on the side ol King Hussein
(telegram No. 327), and had proposed to stop Ibn Saud s su )sid\,to
warn him that the Ikhwan were to restrain then movements, and to
say that Hussein was at liberty to occupy Khurma 1 he leason
given for stopping the subsidy was that the object foi v\ Inch it had
been given—the prosecution of war against the luiks in Cential
Arabia—had ceased to exist. . .
Then Clayton (telegram No. 61 a) had criticised our decision
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