Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎58r] (115/348)

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s G o vernment.j
No. la.—SECRETARY OF STATE.
[October 21.]
EASTERN.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
>o)
[E 13074/1/58] No. 1.
Earl Curzon to Colonel Stokes (Tijlis).
^ Foreign Office, October 21, 1920.
THE Georgian Foreign Minister, M. Gueguechkori, who had been for some time
in this country, called upon me a few days ago in the Foreign Office, accompanied by
M. Ghambashidz^, the Georgian representative in London.
He began by thanking me warmly for the part that I had played, with which he
was quite familiar, in obtaining in Paris for his country the recognition of her de facto
independence during the early part of the year. He was also conscious of my act ion in
securing for Georgia the reversion of the port of Batoum, and he assured me that the
Georgian Government and people regarded me as their main friend among the
representatives of the Allied Powers with whom they had been brought into contact.
He therefore now came to appeal to me to render to his country the supreme service
which it was in my power to confer, by arranging for the de jure recognition of the
Georgian State. France and Italy had, he assured me, told him that they entertained
no objection to this. Great Britain had simply to give the word and the fruition of
Georgia’s highest hopes would be achieved.
I asked leave, in reply, to speak to him with the complete candour of a sincere and
recognised friend. I was a little surprised, I said, at the information he had given me
about France and Italy, because when at Spa, I had mentioned to the representatives of
those countries the idea of a de jure recognition of Georgia, and had sounded them upon
it, the answer from both quarters had been that, in their opinion, the proposal was
premature. I thought, therefore, that this must be an illustration of a phenomenon
with which I was now quite familiar, namely, that other Powers tried to get a little
cheap popularity for themselves by an apparent acquiescence in a proposal with which
they did not really agree, leaving the brunt of refusal, if this had to be given, to be
borne by Great Britain.
There were, I went on to say, certain objections to the proposal of the Georgian
Government which it was difficult for the moment either to overlook or to overcome.
In the first place, when de facto recognition had been given, at my instance, in
Paris in January last, it had been given simultaneously to Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan. Did Georgia ask now to be treated alone; was it possible to recognise
her de jure independence without doing the same thing simultaneously for
Armenia ? If these two were recognised, what measure was to be dealt out to
Azerbaijan ; and would Georgia herself contend that, at this moment, it would be either
a wise or a possible act on the part of the Great Powers to give a formal recognition to
the Soviet Government of that State ? But there was, I said, an even more formidable
obstacle. If the de jure independence of a State was to be recognised, there must be
some certainty as to its frontiers; for a State so recognised would in all probability ask
to be admitted, and would not be denied admission, to the League of Nations, and
thereby the Powers who were members of the League would assume a responsibdity tor
the integrity and defence of its frontiers. What, then, I asked, were the frontiers of the
Georgian State which we might be asked to guarantee ? Could the Foreign Minister
himself tell me ? Now, it was well known, I said, that on scarcely any side had the
frontiers of Georgia been definitely fixed. Disputes still existed between her and the
whole of her neighbours. Until these were adjusted it did not seem to me possible lor
the Powers, however great their sympathy with Georgia and their recognition of her
superior claims, to confer upon her the privilege that she desired. There was yet a
further difficulty, namely, that de jure recognition had hitherto been withheld from the
greater number of the Baltic States on the north-western side of Russia, who had
similarly for the best part of two years been appealing for this boon. There again a
similar uncertainty prevailed, and the Powers had accordingly, and as I thought wisely,
withheld recognition. The selection of Georgia alone for the privilege would at once
raise an acute question with all these other States, and would precipitate an issue which
it was not desirable at the present moment to provoke. As time passed, the horizon
would clear in all these directions, and it might be possible for the Powers to pursue a
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