أوراق اللجنة الشرقية التابعة لمجلس الحرب [و‎‎٤‎٠] (٥٤٤/٧٩)

Lord Curzon.
[This Docnment is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
Printed for the War Cabinet. June 1918.
SECRET.
E.C. 14th Minutes.
f
1
WAR CABINET.
EASTERN COMMITTEE.
Minutes of a Meeting held in Lord Curzon s Room at the Privy Council Office on
Tuesday, June 18, 1918, at 3 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
(in the
i .
* Lieutenant-General the Right Hon. J. C.
Smuts, K.C.
The Right Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P.,
Secretary of State for India.
Mr. J. E. Shuckburgh, India Office.
Major-General Sir G. M. W. Macdonogh,
K.C.M.G., C.B., Director of Military
Intelligence.
Lieutenant-Colonel
Chair).
The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour,^ O.M.,
M. P., Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs.
The Right Hon. the Lord Hardinge of
Penshurst, K.G., P.C., G.C.B., G.C.S.I.,
G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., G.C.V.O., I.S.O.,
Permanent Under-Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs.
Mr. L. Oliphant, C.M.G., Foreign Office.
Sir Mark Sykes, Bt., M.P., Foreign
Office.
L. Storr, Secretary.
Palestine.
The King of the
Hedjaz and the
Anglo-French
Agreement.
1. The Chairman said that the first question before the
Committee arose out of a telegram from Sir Reginald Wingate,
No. 948, dated the 16th June, 1918 (E.C.-556), stating that the
King of the Hedjaz had apparently only just seen in the newspaper
“ Mostakbil,” a report of the speech delivered by Jemal Pasha
several days before the fall of Jerusalem, and had sent rather a
violent telegram to his agent at Alexandria instructing him to make
enquiries about the alleged Anglo-French Agreement and its scope.
The telegram reminded the Foreign Office that the King had never
been officially informed of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and stated
that the agent had asked him to suggest a suitable reply that could
be sent to the King’s telegram. Sir Reginald had advised the agent
to say that the Bolsheviks found in the Patrograd 1 oreign Office a
record of old conversations and of a provisional understanding (not a
formal treaty) between Britain, France, and Russia, early in the
war, to prevent difficulties between the Powers in prosecuting the
war with Turkey; that Jemal, either from ignorance or malice,
had distorted its original purpose; had omitted its stipulations
regarding the consent of native populations and the safeguarding of
their interests, and had ignored the fact that the subsequent outbreak
and success of the Arab revolt and the withdrawal of Russia had, for
a long time past, created a wholly different situation. b>ir Reginald
enquired whether he could add that we regarded the Agreement as
B