أوراق المؤتمر بين الإدارات حول شؤون الشرق الأوسط [أمامي‎] (٢٩٠/١)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
<D i
Printed for the Foreign Office. January 1919.
. SECRET.
I.D.C.E., 1st Minutes.
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
(War Cabinet Meeting No. 515, Minute 2.)
Minutes of an Inter-Departmental Conference held at the Foreign Office on Tuesday,
January 7, 1919.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
(in the Chair).
The Right Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P.,
Secretary of State for India.
Mr. J. E. Shuckburgh, C.B., India Office.
Lieutenant-General Sir H. V. Cox, K C.B.,
K.C.M.G., C.S.I., Military Secretary,
India Office.
Major-General W. Tftwajtes,C.B., Director
of Military Intelligence.
Lieutenant-Colonel L. Storr, C.B.
Mr. d. M. Keynes, C.B., Treasury.
Mr. G. J. Kidston, Foreign Office (Acting Secretary).
General Malleson’s The Chairman reviewed briefly the position at Askabad, where
Position in a new mixed Russian and Tartar Government had just been set up,
Trans-Caspia. which depended entirely for its maintenance on what it might receive
from General Malleson. He reminded the meeting that the Eastern
Committee had recently decided on a policy of slow withdrawal from
Trans-Caspia, and that a telegram instructing General Malleson to
remove his force at once to Meshed had been drafted, and approved
by himself and the India Office, but that the War Office had raised
objection to the despatch of these instructions. The meeting had
been called to discuss this situation.
Would the establishment of this new Government with General
Malleson’s support mean fresh commitments for His Majesty’s
Government ?
Mr. Montagu considered that it would, and that our commit
ments would continue and increase until General Malleson’s force was
withdrawn. General Malleson was asking for more money, which
could not be given —was it worth while? Who were the enemy
against whom this force was being maintained ? The only possible
enemy were the Bolsheviks, but what harm could they do us in those
regions ? How could there be any danger of Bolshevik penetration
in Persia and Afghanistan ?
The Chairman raised the question of whether a point of honour
was not involved. General Malleson had given a formal promise of
support to the previous Government. Was that promise still
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