Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎75r] (149/290)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s Government.]
Printed for the Foreign Office. June 1919.
SECRET.
(I.D.C.E., 22nd Minutes.)
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
Minutes of Meeting held at the Foreign Office on Tuesday, June 17, 1919,
at 7 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
(in the Chair).
The Right Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P.,
Secretary of State for India.
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. J. E. Shuokburgh, 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. .
Major-General Sir P. P. de B. Radcliffe,
K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., Director of
Military Operations, War Office.
Captain H. E. F. Aylmer, Admiralty.
Mr. G. L. Barstow, C.B., Treasury.
Mr. G. J. Kidston, Foreign Office.
Mr. H. H. St. J. Philby, C.I.E., I.C.S.
Miss Gertrude Bell.
Major H. W. Young, D.S.O. (Secretary).
Position in the 1. The Chairman said that since the last meeting Ibn Saud’s
Hejaz. reply to the message which had reached him through Abdulla had
been received. It was unexpectedly conciliatory in tone, and in it
he again expressed his readiness to submit to arbitration. Colonel
Wilson at Jeddah and General Allenby had suggested that a meeting
should be arranged, at some point east of Taif, between Ibn Saud
and Abdulia, in the presence of British officers associated with the
views of either side, and the Government of India had expressed the
earnest hope that negotiations on these lines would be effected. The
points to be decided were : Firstly, whether the proposed meeting
should be approved ; secondly, behind w r hat lines the combatants
should be directed to withdraw their forces during the meeting; and
thirdly, if there was to be a'meeting, who should attend it ?
Mr. Shuckburgh read a telegram which had just been received
from Colonel A. T. Wilson at Baghdad, in which he pointed out that
he was not personally acquainted with Ibn Saud, and suggested that
instead of his attending the proposed meeting himself, Mr. Philby
should be deputed to represent him.
Mr. Philby, replying to a question by the Chairman, said he
was doubtful whether the policy of the meeting was a right one, but
this question depended upon the action which it was considered
desirable that Ibn Saud should take. If he was merely to be induced
to withdraw from his present front line pending arbitration, he con
sidered that this end would be more easily achieved if he were
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