Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎132v] (264/290)

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tamian experience in 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. , made him exceedingly doubtful
of the wisdom of encouraging the idea that Abdullah should be the
rider of Mesopotamia. His reluctance had been increase >y v
recent interview with a press correspondent in whuc i ^ u a i
had expressed his opinion on the subject of the Caliphate, lie
would like to sav at this point that he considered it hig i y < esl f'C.. e
that a decision should be taken as to which department o. is
Majesty’s Government was in future to be responsible for Mesopo
tamia. It would be primarily for the department eventually
responsible to consider whether, in the event of any other candidate
being available, a council of regency and a provisional constitution
should be set up in the country pending tlm appearance of a
suitable Arab ruler. What most alarmed him in the 1 rov isional
Government suggested by the Bagdad Committee was the fact that,
as the Chairman had remarked, it was essentially a British and not
an Arab Government. If we once started on this line we should
never get straight. He regarded Colonel V\ ilson s ideal as a
British-Indian ideal. Wdiat he thought vve should work to was a
native State ideal.
The Chairman said that he agreed with a good deal of what
Mr. Montagu said, though he did not quite know what was meant
by the increasingly unfavourable reports about Abdullah, to which
he referred. As the Conference were probably aware, there was a
possibility that Abdullah would shortly come to England. None of
us knew him personally, and it seemed desirable that we should form
our impressions of him direct. His brother, Feisal, had been to
London on more than one occasion, and most of us had been
favourably impressed with him. His own view was that heisal was
an honest man, and likely to become a good ruler. The question to
be decided was what immediate steps should be taken. Mr.
Vansittart, who had been dealing with the question of mandates,
had been summoned to London from Paris, and the whole question
must be discussed with him. Were we to draw up a mandate of
our own for Mesopotamia and leave the French to do the same for
Syria, or not ? Would the French like it if we did ? If we were
to take this line, were we to do it as quick as possible and lay our
proposed mandate before the League of Nations ?
Mr. Montagu suggested that we should evolve an alternative to
the French draft, based on Mesopotamian requirements, and present
it to the French. If they disagreed with it, we could then lay the
two alternatives before the League of Nations. He had himself ^
never seen a mandate, and did not knovy into what detail it should
go, but thought we should make up our minds what we wanted out
of Mesopotamia. He understood that the main desideratum was to
keep other Powers away from the resources of the country and to ♦
ensure that we should have the development of them, especially of
the oil. We should then find out what the people of the country
desired from us, and an agreement should be drafted embodying
these two conclusions.
The Chairman said that, so far as he knew, the form of mandates
(b) and (c) for the late German colonies had taken definite shape.
With regard to mandate (a), he understood that the first draft had
been made by Colonel House. During the French negotiations with
Feisal they had enlarged on this draft, and included in it many
details which had not originally been contemplated. He had known
privately that they were experiencing considerable difficulty in
getting Feisal to agree to their modified mandate though M.
Berthelot had continually referred to it as a harmless document.
The draft which was now before him ran into eighteen pages, and
included elaborate provisions on almost every possible subject. He
♦ asked whether Mr. Montagu suggested that this should now be
thrown overboard and something simpler substituted.