Correspondence with A J Balfour, Sir R Wingate, Lord Allenby, Lord Milner and others on Egypt [‎59r] (117/300)

Confidential.
JtU.
1, Carlton House Terrace,
S.W.l.
April 25th, 1919.
My dear Arthur,
Excuse pencil, hut I am in hed with a hack attack
and further I have only a few minutes in which to catch the
post. N ^
. Allenhy has been pressing (a) for inroediate announce-
V' '
ment and^fb) for early despatch of Milner’s Mission to
Egypt. Milner objects strongly - as his enclosed letter
shows, because of the quite inadmissible conditions under
which Allenby suggests that he should go out, and because ,
he thinks that the situation both in Egypt and at Paris
should be cleared vtp/before any announcement is made.
* /
On the firg^ point he is clearly right. I had
never contemplated a Royal Commission with Milner as its
Chaiman. I thought and still think that he should go as
Lord Dufferin did - as a Special Conmissioner with a
number of colleagues (probably 4 in addition to himself).
He should go in entire independence of Allenby, v/hile of
course co-operating with him throughout and safeguarding
Allenby 1 s official position.
Further I think that Milner’s suggested terms of
reference are excellent.
Then we come to the question (a) of announcement,
(b) of despatch of Mission.
Milner seems to me quite right in his desire to
r
place the Mission in an atmosphere of its own, and not to
let it be treated as a further step in Allenby’s hitherto
most ill-fated policy of concession.
For the moment there is no native Ministry in Egypt,
and I cannot help hoping myself that Allenby will not make