Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎86r] (171/348)

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in the Tripartite Agreement as they were about Smyrna or Thrace, and, accordingly,
that a modification of that agreement would probably turn out to be one of the
conditions of success. I had expressed my entire agreement with this line of
reasoning, and while willing to adhere to any engagement which the British Govern
ment had made' in what was, so far as we were concerned, only a self-denying
ordinance, 1 yet felt that the French and Italian Governments would find it very
difficult to get any Turkish Government to accept the agreement in anything like its
present form, and that they had better put their heads together in order to hud some
way out of the difficulty.
M. Briand had taken the line, in the presence of the Italian Ambassador at Paris,
that the advantages which France and Italy desired might be obtained in another
way with the free consent of the Turkish Government; and I had said that I had no
objection to any such an arrangement. It was, however, a matter for the French
and Italians to arrange between themselves. All this was said in the presence of
Count Bonin, who had, naturally enough, declined in any way to compromise his
Government, and had expressed with candour the kind of reception which he thought
any such modification would meet with in Italy.
There, I said, the matter must for the moment rest. I warned the Ambassador
that, should we come to the point of resuming negotiations with Turkey, the subject
could not in all probability be escaped.
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.