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Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎19v] (38/348)

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The record is made up of 1 file (174 folios). It was created in 16 Nov 1917-17 Jan 1924. It was written in English and French. 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. .

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probably be the more inclined to make some concession to the French in the ninttei m
that it appears from recent evidence that neither General Allenby nor General Gais 1 a
has suthcient forces at his disposal to meet his pressing requirements. At the piesent
moment, for instance, neither of them is in a position to send the necessary foice to
punish the persons responsible for the murder of the British officer referred toabo\e.
This murder took place a comparatively short distance to the north of Mosul, and as we
are unable to strike at such short range, whether from lack of men or transport, theie
is surely no good reason why we should persist in a policy of excluding the French
rigidly from the whole of Turkey in Asia.
Relations between General Franchet d’Espercy and the High Commissioners at
Constantinople.
Closely connected with this question, and of scarcely less importance, is that of the
relations between the French military command at Constantinople and the Allied
High Commissioners.
Since the arrival of General Franchet d’Esperey there has been constant trouble
on this score, and it appears that the French contend that the functions of the High
Commissioners are restricted to matters connected with the fulfilment of the Armistice
conditions, and that on other matters the military commander is supreme, and at
liberty to make any arrangements he chooses in direct negotiation with the Turkish
Government.
This again is a question which cannot be settled by exchange of notes, and appears
to require the personal attention of the supreme authorities of the Allied States now in
Paris.
IV.— Future of Turkey and of Constantinople.
Meanwhile, the Turks at Constantinople note the growing dissensions between the
Allies in the capital, in the Aidin vilayet, in Cilicia, in Syria, in Palestine and in
Mosul, and bide their time. The old party cleavages and rivalries are being bridged
over by a host of new parties and associations based on Nationalisn and Islam,
and while the extremist leaders of the C.U.P. are imprisoned anc discredited, their
followers are forming new combinations, and working in with the Bolsheviks on the one
side and with the relics of the old Hamidian regime on the other. Time is on their
side and they know it. Each week that passes reveals fresh intrigues in every quarter.
In Switzerland, where there is coming and going between Enver and the other C.U.P.
leaders in Germany and the agents of the party in Geneva, and grave suspicions of
implication in the Egyptian troubles; in the Aidin vila} et, whtre the Italians, who
owe Adalia to their intrigues with the C.U.P. before the war, are working with the
Turks against the Greeks and French : In Kurdistan, where the agents of the C.U.P.
are free to come and go, since we are quite unable to establish any military authority
there; in India, and throughout the Islamic world, and even in London itself, where
time is beinir given for the consolidation of a formidable movement of the kind which
is attractive to all the usual elements of unrest, and where agitation is being actively
carried cn against the expulsion of the Turks from Constantinople, the conversion of
Santa Sofia into a Christian Church and Christian interference with the Kalifate.
The Committee of Union and Progress, who have during the war kept in close
touch with the Bolsheviks through Germany and Copenhagen by means of such
notorious agents as Ahmed Agaieff and Parvus (alias Helphand), watch the westward
progress of the Bolshevik wave, and look forward to the moment when they too will be
carried forward with it.
What has the Turk to hope from an immediate peace ? His material position is
not likely to be greatly improved ; the hated Greeks and Armenians are to supplant
him, perhaps even to become his masters ; he is told that he is to lose Constantinople
and Smyrna as well as Syria, Palestine, Armenia, and all the Arab countries, and now
a rumour goes forth that even the small patrimony that is to be left to him is not to be
under his absolute control, but to be managed for him by a Christian Power ; and that
Power in all probability the despised Italian who cheated him out of Tripoli. Can it
be wondered that be counts every moment of delay as so much gain, and watches with
increasing satisfaction how the failure to reach any settlement in Paris, and the growing
jealousies and dissentions of the Allies, are placing him every day in a better position
to resist the conditions to be imposed upon him, and may even enable him in the end to
take his revenge.

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Content

The file contains correspondence, memoranda, maps, and notes on various subjects connected to the Near and Middle East. The majority of the papers are written by George Curzon himself and concern the settlement of former territories of the Ottoman Empire following its break up after the First World War. Matters such as the Greek occupation of Smyrna, the division of Thrace, the Greco-Turkish War, Georgian independence, and the Treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne are all discussed.

Other matters covered by the file include those concerning the Arab territories of the former Ottoman Empire, American advisers in Persia, and the future of Palestine, including a report by the Committee on Palestine (Colonial Office) dated 27 July 1923 (folios 168-171).

Correspondence within the file is mostly between Curzon and representatives of the other Allied Powers, as well as officials from other governmental departments and diplomatic offices.

Extent and format
1 file (174 folios)
Arrangement

The file is arranged in chronological order from the front to the back.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 174; 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 and French in Latin script
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Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎19v] (38/348), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/278, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100076917035.0x000027> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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