Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎116r] (231/290)

MS.Zui.F.ndl
[This Decument is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s GovernmeHt.j
Printed for thejQabinet. March 1920.
I.D.C.E., 36th Minutes.
FOREIGN OFFICE.
Minutes of a Meeting held at the Foreign Office on Wednesday, March 17, 1920,
at 5 p.m.
Present :
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
(in the Chair).
Major-General Sir P. P. de B. Radcliffe, Sir William Duke, G.C.I.E., K.C.S.I.,
K.O.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., Director of Under-Secretary of State for India.
Military Operations, War Office.
General Sir Alexander Cobjbe, Y.C.,
Captain C. P. R. Goode, C.B, D.S.O.
K.C.B , Military Secretary, 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. .
Mr. C. C. Garrett, C.I.E., 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. .
Director, Operdtions Division (Foreign)
Admiralty.
Mr. H. E. Pass, O.B.E., Treasury.
Mr. L. Oliphant, C.M.G., Foreign Office.
Mr. R. G. Vansittart, M.V.O., Foreign
Office.
Mr. E. Forbes Adam, Foreign Office.
Major H. W. Young, D.S.O. (Secretary).
Bolshevik Menace
in Persia.
The Chairman said that the Conference had now to deal with a
situation in Persia which was becoming somewhat complicated, if not
actually dangerous. Specific suggestions had been made bv Sir
Percy Cox with regard to Starosselski and die Cossack division,
upon which an immediate decision was necessary.
The question of the Cossack division was really a subordinate
issue which as a part of the larger problem of our relations with the
Persian Government had raised the whole question of the steps
which could or should be taken by His Majesty’s Government to
meet the Bolshevik menace against Persia.
We had been not obscurely threatened that if we were unable
to oppose a serious Bolshevik invasion of Persian soil either from
Khorassan or from another direction, the present Persian Govern
ment and the Anglo-Persian Agreement would go by the board and
we should lay ourselves open to a charge of serious breach of faith.
He did not personally agree with the local estimate of the seriousness
of the situation. His own view was that the Persian Government
had incorrectly read into the Anglo-Persian Agreement a meaning
which it had never been intended to bear. He was inclined to think
that Sir Percy Cox was unduly affected by the local situation. At
the same time answers had to be given to the questions asked by
Vossugh-ud-Daulah and by Sir Percy Cox himself. These questions
presented a number of difficult points on which he would ask the
Conference to advise him. It seemed to him lhat the Conference
had to make up its mind, firstly, what importance should be attached
B