Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎89r] (177/290)

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Governmpr\i]
Printed for the Foreign Office. September 1919.
SECRET.
[I.D.C.E., 29th Minutes.]
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
Minutes of Meeting held at the Foreign Office on Tuesday, September 2, 1919, at 4 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of
(in the
The Right Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P.,
Secretary of State for India, India
Office.
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. .
Lieutenant-General Sir H. Y. Cox, K.C.B.,
K.C.M.G., C.S.I., 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. H. W. Youni
Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
Chair).
Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Gribbon,C. M. G.,
War Office.
Captain C. P. R. Coode, D.S.O., Admiralty.
Mr. G. L. Barstow, C.B., Treasury.
Mr. Clark Kerr, Foreign Office.
, D.S.O. (Secretary).
Major Noel. 1. The Chairman said that Field-Marshal Allenby’s views on the
proposal to leave the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, to control Kurdish
affairs had now been received. 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. telegram of the
5th June had been sent by the Foreign Office and 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. in
consultation, and it now appeared that the proposal contained in it
was not acceptable to the G.O.C. Egyptforce. Major Noel had
originally been placed under Field-Marshal Allenby’s orders, but at
that time his activities were confined to the area in the occupation of
Egyptforce. He was now understood to have started on a tour of
the Kurdish areas which were still nominally Turkish, and for the
purposes of this tour it had been thought advisable to leave him in
direct communication with and under the control of the Civil
Commissioner, Baghdad. It did not seem practicable that
Major Noel should be under the orders of the G.O.C. Egyptforce
up to the line which bounded the area of military occupation, and
that as soon as he crossed this line he should come under the orders
of the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad.
Field-Marshal Allen by was expected to leave Egypt on the
3rd September, and he suggested that 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. should
telegraph to the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, and inform him that
the question would be discussed with Field-Marshal Allenby on his
arrival. In the meantime it should, he thought, be accepted that
for the purposes of the area in the occupation of Egyptforce, the
direction of policy should be left in the hands of the authorities of
that force.
The Confere7ice decided:
That 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. should telegraph in the sense suggested
by the Chairman.