ملف ١٩١٨/٢٩٩ الجزء ٣ "بلاد فارس: الوضع في الجنوب؛ طائرات في بوشهر؛ حاميات بعد الحرب في الخليج الفارسي؛ مسألة انسحاب القوات البريطانية؛ زيارة وزير الحرب إلى الجنوب، سنة ١٩٢٢" [و‎‎١‎٥‎٢] (٧٤٦/٣٠٨)

5479—1 3000 6.22
Minute Paper.
Department.
but point out, as Col. Trevor has done, that withdrawal
is not actually practicable till the hot weather is over,
i.e. not before September or so. The last sentence of
the Government of India’s telegram may presumably be
expanded and paraphrased to the effect that : A definite
pledge given now to withdraw the troops four months hence
would put His Majesty's Minister in a position to require
from the Persian Government a spirit of reasonableness in
dealing with the other outstanding questions mentioned
above. There is a suggestion of bargaining in this, as
tnere is in fact in Sir P.Loraine's proposal* TWa- HOT
distillation between this line and Col. Ttcvo r 4 s would
prooaoly make all the difference in practice - assuming
of course^ that this or any Persian Government is capable
of gratitude for recognition of its
What the Foreign Office pronose is not very
jclear; apart from a desire to secure the financial
benefits of withdrawal, they agree apparently with Sir
F.Lorain® that the political effect of withdrawal or
promise to withdraw would probably be an improvement in
general relations conducive to a friendly settlement of
the other questions; but they apparently wish to defer
^ decision till they see how these questions develop.
j(Incidentally, it is a miss-statement, so far as our
i
present information shews, to say that operations are
being conducted against the Bakhtiari : they can
jipparently still be averted if the Khans, with A.P.O.C.
^ e lp* pay up the fine imposed). But the Foreign Office
<pannot have it both ways; unless they agree now, and
re or less unconditionally, to the withdrawal of the
troops in the cold weather, they will not get their improved
poll tic ai^ttmo sphere when His Majesty’s Minister needs it: