Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎57r] (113/290)

FThis Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government,]
Printed for the Foreign Office. May 1919.
SECRET.
I.D.C.E., 16th Minutes.
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
Minutes of a Conference held at the Foreign Office on Thursday, April 17, 1919,
at 4*30 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.L, G.C.I.E.
(in the Chair).
Lieutenant-Colonel A. T. Wilson, C.M.G.,
C.I.E., D.S.O., Civil Commissioner,
Baghdad.
Sir Thomas W. Holderness, G.C.S.I.,
K.C.M.G., 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. J. E. Shuckburgh, C.B., 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. .
Brigadier-General W. H. Bartholomew,
C.M.G., D.S.O., War Office.
Mr. G. Barstow, C.B., Treasury.
Mr. G. J. Kidston, Foreign Office.
Mr. E. H. Jones (Secretary).
Major H. W. Young, D.S.O.
Future Adminis- 1. The Conference had before them a letter from Lieutenant-
tration of Colonel A. T. Wilson to the 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. , dated the 6 th April, 1919,
Mesopotamia. with enclosures, on the future constitution of Mesopotamia.
(I.D.C.E., 914.)
The Chairman said that the whole situation in Mesopotamia
had been altered by the combined Anglo-French declaration of
November 1918. As a result of this declaration the Eastern Com
mittee had requested the 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. to telegraph to the Ci\ il
Commissioner, Baghdad, inviting his views on the best form of hit me
government for Mesopotamia. He had accordingly been instructed
to submit proposals based on the principle of self-determination, but
subject to the assumption that the administration still required a
large measure of British supervision and control. In a number of
replies received during the early months of this year the Ci\il
Commissioner had communicated the aspirations of various local
sections and communities, and on the 14th February the 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.
had sent a more precise telegram in which they asked the Civil
Commissioner to suggest a framework for future administration. A
constitution was required which should be flexible and adapted to a
steadily increasing measure of Arab participation, but which should,
at the same time, prevent Arab nationalism from being drawn into
permanent opposition to British control. It was the reply to this
telegram which was now to be considered by the Conference.
Municipal and divisional councils had already been established.
Colonel Wilson had invited the views of his political officers on draft
proposals for an expansion of this system. In these proposals he had
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