أوراق اللجنة الشرقية التابعة لمجلس الحرب [و‎‎٣‎٥] (٥٤٤/٦٩)

7
Committee were all agreed that in the present circumstances no
immediate assistance could be given to Sir P. Sykes. That being
the case, in his opinion negotiations offered the only solution.
The Committee decided that—
The War Office should telegraph to the Commander-in-Chief
m India, asking for his comments on Sir P. Sykes’s
telegram, of the 3rd June, and that his reply to War
Office telegram about the despatch of two battalions to
Bundar Abbas should be awaited.
Propaganda in
Mesopotamia.
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3. Mr. Montagu said that his Department had addressed the
War Office on the 5th June on the subject of the proposed
deputation of Mr. Percival Landon to Mesopotamia on behalf of
the Ministry of Information. The letter stated that, whatever
view might be taken of Mr. Landon’s personal qualifications, the
question should first be decided whether it was desirable, on broad
grounds of policy, that such delicate and important questions as
those mentioned in the early part of War Office telegram No. 58581,
dated the 18th May, 1918, to the G.O.C. Mesopotamia, should be
ventilated in the Public Press. The letter further stated that in
the opinion of the Secretary of* State for India, the project should
not be proceeded v\ ith until it had been referred to the Eastern
Committee.
Mr. Montagu said that he thought that there was considerable
danger to be apprehended from the activity of propagandists in
Persia at present.
The Chairman said that Mr. Landon had accompanied the
expedition which had been sent to Thibet when he (Lord Curzon)
had been Viceroy of India. Judging from his experience on that
occasion, Mr. Landon would be a quite trustworthy person to send.
Mr. Shuckburgh informed the Committee that Sir Percy Cox
did not wish Mr. Landon to visit Mesopotamia for propaganda.
General Macdonogh stated that the Minister of Information
did not want Mr. Landon to go to Mesopotamia for definite
propagandist purposes, but merely to collect material for his
Department so that suitable arrangements could be made, if and
when it was decided to start a propaganda there.
The Chairman thought that as Sir P. Cox was opposed to
Mr. Landon’s going, the matter should be dropped for the present.
(Initialled) C. of K,
2, Whitehall Gardens, S. IF. 1,
June 6, 1918.
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