Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎160v] (320/348)

Because Lord Grey’s statement, as the Ambassador knew perlectly well, was absolutely
true, and because I could not deny it without telling a falsehood ; and yet M. oincaie
had sent his Excellency down a few days later to complain that 1 had not told a he
upon the matter and had left the charge unanswered. I said that if this sort of 1 nng
were to go on it would be impossible for a British Minister ever to open his mouth
without asking M. Poincare’s permission as to what exactly he might say. 1 said to
the Ambassador that he had never seen me angry before, but that T felt I had the
fullest justification for anger now, and 1 begged him to spare me the pain of receiving
any more intimations of the character to which 1 had referred, and which could oulj
emanate from M. Poincare when the temper of the latter was under imperfect control.
The Ambassador attempted to pacify me by assurances that there had been
a misunderstanding here or an exaggeration there, but both the manner and ihe matter
of his reply showed quite clearly, not only that he realised the justice of my complaint,
but that his sympathies were with the man in London who made it rather than vith
the man in Paris who had provoked it.
Reverting to the question of negotiations with the 1 urks, I took advantage ol the
occasion to give to his Excellency a little narrative of what actually had happened at
Lausanne. I told him that, while it was M. Bompard who had insisted with me upon
the retention of the economic section of the treaty and had himself picked out the
articles which it might be possible to postpone—a position in which I had loyally
backed him up—it was the same M. Bompard who, the moment my back was turned,
when I had left Lausanne, ran round to Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and offered to withdraw the
economic section altogether. I told him further that the modification of the judicial
formula which Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was now prepared to accept was one which had been
similarly put forward by the Italian second delegate, M. Montagna, after I had gone,
without any reference to the British delegation, in entire violation of what we had all
agreed upon only a couple of hours before, and it was not until two days ago, and
then only after 1 had sent a special telegram to Rome, that the British Government
had ever seen the text. This was the kind of procedure that had gone on daily and
hourly at Lausanne. M. Barrere had gone away sooner than connive in such tactics.
If M. Poincare drove me to tell the truth by his repeated interventions and complaints,
it was not I who had anj^ cause to shrink from the revelations, but the result would be
one which I assured his Excellency that the French Government would have the best
of reasons to deplore.
1 do not think that after this conversation I shall hear much more of these
splenetic incursions of the French President du Conseil, or that his representative will
be quite so ready to run down to the Foreign Office with these puerile complaints.
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.