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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [163r] (323/501)
The record is made up of 251 folios (1 file). It was created in 15 Nov 1922-3 Nov 1923. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: 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. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
v
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government,]
[December 28.]
Section 1.
[E 14464/13003/44] No. 1.
1 lie Marquess ('urzon of kedleston to Ismet
Pasha
An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
.—[Received in Foreign Office
December 28.)
Deal- Ismet
Pasha
An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
, Lausanne, December 26, 1922.
I HAVE given careful study to the detailed statement which you sent to me on
the 23rd December with regard to the Mosul Vilayet; and I must be permitted to say
that while the greater part of the arguments contained in my memorandum of the
14th December remain—even after your prolonged examination of them—untouched
and unanswered, the reasons which you now adduce, and which I should be quite
willing to submit to the public judgment, do but confirm my opinion that no case
whatever can be made out—even on the grounds which have been selected by your
Excellency—for the surrender by the British Government of the Mosul Vilayet.
M ill you allow me, however, to put the case before you—apart from those
particular arguments—in a way which will admit of no further misunderstanding ?
1 he British Government which had been forced into war with the Turkish
Government by the unprovoked action of the latter in 1914, ultimately defeated the
r l urkish forces and expelled them from the entire area of Irak and far beyond.
Those territories have ever since been occupied by British forces, and were for
some time administered by British officials.
In the course of the war the British Government entered into a definite and
honourable pledge to the Arab inhabitants of those regions to free them from Turkish
rule, and at the earliest possible date they took steps to inaugurate an Arab
Administration.
They accepted at San Remo in April 1920 a definite mandate under the League
of Nations (which the Turkish Government has now intimated its intention to join),
and in accordance with article 22 of the Covenant, for the Irak State.
As regards the Kurds in particular, the draft mandate for Irak, which has been
published, stipulates that “ nothing in this mandate shall prevent the mandatory
irom establishing a system of local autonomy for predominantly Kurdish
areas in Irak as he may consider suitable.” I have not found anything
in the statement of the Turkish delegation that would lead me to think
that your Government contemplates any more liberal regime for the Kurdish popula
tions still remaining in Turkey.
More recently still His Majesty’s Government have signed a treaty with the
freely elected King of Irak, the Emir Feisal. This treaty contains a clause that
‘‘ no territory in Irak shall be ceded or leased or in any way placed under the control
of any foreign Power.”
r l his chain of events constitutes an obligation which no Government possessing
the least self respect can honourably ignore, and from which His Majesty’s Govern
ment certainly have not the slightest intention to recede. That position is confirmed
at every point by the local considerations which your challenge has fortunately
enabled me to adduce.
In these circumstances I should merely be deceiving your Excellency and the
Turkish delegation if I led you to think that any prolongation of this controversv
could make any difference whatever in the attitude which I have felt it my duty to
assume.
As I told you, however, at our first meeting on the subject, I shall be prepared
at any time to instruct my experts to discuss with yours the precise trace of the
northern frontier of the Mosul Vilayet, which will constitute in the treaty the future
boundary between Turkey and Irak. Time is slipping by, and the ^ sooner this
subject is discussed in the most friendly spirit the better.
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.
TURKEY.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[197 ee—1 :
About this item
- Content
Letters and papers on the frontier between Iraq (also written as Irak in the file) and Turkey, with particular reference to Mosul and questions concerning oil. The file consists mainly of correspondence between Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs George Curzon, and officials in the Foreign Office, Air Ministry, Colonial Office and Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. [Mustafa İsmet İnönü]. The contents of the file are as follows:
- Sir John Evelyn Shuckburgh to Curzon (15 November 1922). Letter enclosing paper setting out main arguments against evacuating Iraq
- Eric Graham Forbes Adam for Curzon (3 December 1922). Interview with Mukhtar Bey [Mukhtār Beg]; submission of draft telegrams to Foreign Office
- Sir William Tyrrell to Foreign Office (Memo, 3 December 1922, circulated to the Cabinet); interview with Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , 28 November 1922
- Air Staff for Cabinet (5 December 1922). Note: on Sir John Salmond’s proposal for a Forward Policy in the event of Turkish invasion of Iraq or a Resumption of Hostilities with Turkey, 4 December 1922
- Curzon to Foreign Office (6 December 1922). Telegram, 5 December 1922
- Middle East Department (7 December 1922). Note: Mosul – on above telegram
- Foreign Office to Curzon (8 December 1922). Telegram: Mosul
- Curzon to Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. (14 December 1922). Letter: enclosing Memo on Mosul Vilayet: reasons for refusing Turkish claim
- Curzon for Cabinet (26 December 1922). Curzon for Cabinet. Memo presented to Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. on Mosul, 14 December 1922
- Curzon to Cabinet (27 December 1922). Letter: Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. to Curzon enclosing reply to British memo, 23 December 1922
- Curzon for Cabinet (28 December 1922). Letter: Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. enclosing counter reply, 26 December 1922
- Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. (29 December 1922). Letter with annexed Memo
- Curzon for Cabinet (1 January 1923). Letter Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. to Curzon
- Sir Percy Cox to Colonial Office (30 December 1922)
- Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame to Sir Sydney Chapman (1 January 1923). Letter: possibility of settlement on basis of oil concessions to Turks and Italians
- Eric Graham Forbes Adam for Curzon (4 January 1923). Memo: conversation with Reader William Bullard and three Turkish experts
- Sir E Crowe to Curzon (3 January 1923). Telegram: from Colonial Office: oil
- Mr Lyndsay to Curzon (4 January 1923). Telegram: paraphrase of Colonial Office telegram to Bagdad [Baghdad], 2 January
- Curzon to Colonial Office (5 January 1923). Telegram: oil
- Sir Ronald William Graham to Curzon (8 January 1923). Letter: (printed for Cabinet) to Curzon: Italian press
- Reader William Bullard to Curzon (9 January 1923). Note: Mosul
- Sir Auckland Geddes (12 January 1923) Telegram: American attitude
- Notes by Curzon (16 January 1923). Handwritten: visit of Aga Petros to Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
- Shuckburgh to Forbes Adam (18 January 1923). Letter enclosing draft of telegram to Curzon
- Forbes Adam for Curzon (18 January 1923). Note attaching statement of the history and position with regard to the Mandates in Syria and Iraq and the question of frontiers
- British Case for Northern Frontier of Iraq with Map (19 January 1923). Folder containing notes ‘mostly taken from the memoranda which you (i.e. Curzon) exchanged with Ismet Pasha’ – December 1922
- Forbes Adam for Curzon (20 January 1923). Note: Plebiscite and Mosul
- Forbes Adam for Curzon: ‘Note attaching detailed minute as to the oil in Iraq and the history and present position of the claim of the Turkish Petroleum Company’
- Mr Childs's Statement for the American representatives (23 January 1923)
- Daily Telegraph cutting on League of Nations and Mosul Problem (27 January 1923)
- Curzon for Cabinet (26 January 1923). Speech: reply to Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. respecting Mosul, 23 January 1923
- Secretary of State for Colonies to Acting High Commissioner for Iraq (26 January 1923). Paraphrase: telegram: British proposal that question of Northern Frontier of Iraq should be referred to the League of Nations
- High Commissioner, Bagdad to Lord Crew (29 January 1923) Telegram: Enclosing telegram from Iraq Government to Lord Balfour for communication to League of Nations
- Lord Crewe to Curzon (31 January 1923). Telegram: Iraq frontier
- Telegram to Ankara signed by Ismet Hassan [‘Iṣmat Ḥasan] and Rozor Nur [Riḍa Nūr]
- Oil engineering and finance (17 February 1923). Article: The Mesopotamian Oilfields
- The Graphic (17 February 1923). Article: The Mystic City of Mosul
- Colonel Francis Richard Maunsell for Cabinet (24 September 1923). Notes on the Mosul frontier question
- Sir James Edward Masterton-Smith to Foreign Office (3 November 1923). Printed for the information of Curzon, copy of a despatch from the High Commissioner for Iraq, on the subject of the delimitation of the Turco-Irak frontier.
Following documents are undated:
- Lord Balfour to League of Nations. Speech: The frontier between Turkish territory and the territory of Iraq
- The President of the League of Nations. Reply: after Speech by Balfour
- Typewritten report: The question of Mosul
- Typewritten report: The Question of Mosul
The file also includes handwritten notes by Curzon on the Mosul vilayet and groups residing there.
- Extent and format
- 251 folios (1 file)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 251; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [163r] (323/501), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/294, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100130546287.0x00007c> [accessed 14 June 2026]
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F112/294
- Title
- 'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil'
- Pages
- 1r:28v, 28ar:28av, 29r:72v, 91r:167v, 170r:218r, 218r:251v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence