Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎109r] (217/290)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s GoveramegM
Printed for the Foreign Office. March 1920.
SECRET.
[I.D.C.E., 35th Minutes.]
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
frrrrfr Minutes of a Meeting held at the Foreign Office on Monday, February 23, 1920,
at 6*30 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon oi
(in the
The Right Hon. Viscount Peel, G.B.E.,
Under-Secretary of State for War.
Lieutenant - Colonel W. H. Gribbon,
C.M.G., War Office.
Mr. E. Phipps, C.M.G., Foreign Office.
Mr. R. G. Vaxsittart, M.V.O., Foreign
Office.
Mnjor H. W. Youn
Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
Chair).
Sir Arthur Hirtzel, K.C.B., Assistant
Under-Secretary of State, 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. C. C. Garbett, 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. .
Sir George Barstow, K.C.B., Treasury.
, D.S.O. (Secretary).
The Chairman said that Kurdistan had been more than once
mentioned at the Peace Conference m the discussions on the future
of the Turkish Empire. The special knowledge of the details ot the
Kurdish question in the possession of the members of the 1 eace
Conference was not great, and he had called the Conference togethei
for an expert opinion which would enable him to formulate a
proposal to lay before M. Berthelot. We and the trench were
mainly, if not solely, concerned in the luture of Kurdistan, and it
was for us to arrive at an agreement with them. At the last
meeting on this subject on the 17th November, at which the
Secretary of State for India had been present, they had all been
anxious to curtail the military and political commitments of His
Majesty’s Government as far as possible. 1 he Conference heaid
the views of Major Noel, who had recently returned from a toui
in the Kurdish areas, and after some discussion they had decided that,
subject to any further remarks which the Acting Civil Commissionei
for Bagdad might have to offer, it was desirable for His Majesty s
Government to withdraw entirely from the areas inhabited by Kurds
and to suspend the construction of the Kifri—Kirkuk Railway line.
This decision had been telegraphed to Colonel Wilson, and had been
strongly opposed by him. He both denied the authority and
disagreed with the advice of Major Noel. He again recommended
the inclusion of Southern Kurdistan in the Mesopotamian area,
which was to be under a British mandate. He reverted to a
suggestion made by himself in June* 1919, and adhered to the
conclusion that Sulemaniyeh, Rania, Keui Sandjak, Erbil, Dohuk
and Zakho should be included in Mesopotamia, but not Amadia.
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