Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎60r] (119/290)

< 710 / 'tiA/?. err? >
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
Printed for the Foreign Office. May 1919.
SECRET.
[I.D.C.E., 17th Minutes.]
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
Minutes of a Meeting held at the Foreign Office on luesday,
April 29, 1919, at 5’30 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.L, G.C.LE
(in the Chair).
The Right Hon. Walter Long, M.P.,
Petroleum Executive.
Professor Sir John Cabman, D.Se.,
K.C.M.G., Petroleum Executive.
Mr. J. C. Clarke, O.B.E., Petroleum
Executive.
Captain A. S. Jelf, Petroleum Executive.
Sir Arthur Hirtzel, K.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. -
Mr. L. J. Kershaw, C.S.L, C.I.E., India
Office.
Colonel Nugent, War Office.
Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Gribbon,C.M.G.,
War Office.
Major Vaughan Morgan, War Office.
Rear-Admiral Sir H. H. 1). Tothill,
K.C.M.G., C.B., Admiralty.
Mr. G. Barstow, C.B., Treasury.
Mr. G. J. Kidston, Foreign Office.
Mr. E. Weakley, C.M.G., Foreign Office.
Major H. W. Young, D.S.O. (Secretary).
Proposed Agree
ment with French
(xovernment with
regard to Oil
1 nterests.
The Chairman said that the Conference had met to look finally
into the question of the proposed arrangements with regard to oil
interests. While the Inter-Departmental Conference was to discuss
the agreement with the French Government (Appendix I). the largei
question of the arrangements with the Shell Combine (Appendix It),
out of which the French agreement had arisen, had been befoie the
Cabinet the same morning. Before proceeding to discuss the French
agreement, he would like to be quite clear in his mind as to the
degree of departmental concurrence in the Shell agreement, in which
it had been stated at the Cabinet meeting that the foreign Office,
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. , and Treasury had concurred. He was not sure it it
was strictly correct to say that the toreign Office had concuned m
this agreement. He personally had not been consulted, and he yas
not sure whether the Foreign Office had concurred either in principle
or in detail.
Sir John Cadman said that the agreement with the Royal
Dutch Shell Group had been discussed at every stage, and finally
agreed to by Lord Harcourt’s Commitee, on which the foreign
Office was represented. This agreement, so far as Mesopotamia was
concerned, was a corollary to the F rench agreement which had been
discussed with the Foreign Office representatives in Paris, and
finally initialled by Mr. Balfour. Lord Inchcape, representing the
B
[987]—610