Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎71r] (141/348)

CIRCULATED TO THE CABINET,
[5791 p —1] xd
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Pffajesty’s Government.]
EASTERN (Turkey). [March 15.]
CONFIDENTIAL. Section 1.
[E 3343/1/44] No. 1.
Earl Curzon to Sir H. Rumbold (Constantinople).
(No. 240.)
Sir, Foreign Office, March 15, 1921.
THE Grand Vizier, in much better health, and in greater spirits than on the
occasion of his former visit, called upon me at the Foreign Office this afternoon in order
to bid good-bye.
His manner on this occasion was assured and his utterance voluble, and there was
no concealment on his part of the fact that he was leaving England in a very good
humour at the concessions which had been made.
Following up the advance which he had made to me on the previous occasion at
the instance of the Sultan, he told me that the latter was exceedingly anxious to fortify
the closer co-operation, which he hoped would exist in the future between Turkey and
Great Britain, by a separate alliance or agreement with ourselves. He realised,
however, that at a time when we were acting in close concert with the other Great
Powers such a solution was impracticable and could not receive favourable consideration
at our hands. He therefore refrained from putting it forward, but he wished me to
know what had been in the mind of his royal master and what was the future situation
to which the latter looked forward.
I made no comment upon this suggestion, except to say that the Grand Vizier was
quite right in thinking that it was impossible for us to take any step at the present
juncture in separation from our allies.
His Excellency, while protesting that he did not want to raise any question of a
revision of the Treaty of Sevres beyond that which had been officially proposed, then
proceeded, in contravention of his own assurance, to plead for lighter treatment in
respect of Thrace. His argument was really a plea for the Enos-Midia as against the
Chatalja line.
I allowed him to develop his case without interruption, but informed him at the
end that an essential condition of the modifications that had been proposed was
the maintenance of the rest of the Treaty of Sevres intact, and that it was therefore
out of the question that an exception should be made in the case of Thrace. The
Turkish Government should bow to the facts of the situation and be grateful for the
very substantial concessions that had been made.
The Grand Vizier then went on to give me a rather interesting account of the
private relations which had existed between the Angora delegation and himself. He
admitted that they had come to the Conference with some suspicion of each other, and
that the relations for the first day or two ha-l been strained. At the end of that time
Bekir Sami Bey having shown a very conciliatory spirit, they had acted in close
co-operation, and he hoped to have established relations with the Angora delegation
which would render co-operation between the two much easier than had at one time
been imagined. The “ wild cats of Angora ” had indeed, according to him, become
quite tame under his fatherly care.
Tewfik Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. then proceeded to develop a long argument about the increase in
customs duty to which the High Commissioners had agreed at Constantinople.
Apparently this particular concession was not in the least what the Turkish Govern
ment desired and would not result to them in the pecuniary advantage which was the
only thing to which they really attached importance. They did not want an
ad valorem duty at all, and the 11 per cent., in practice, would mean a realised duty of
not more than one-half.
I did not either interrupt or follow the Grand} Vizier in this argument, which he
continued until he had exhausted the fertility of the vein.
We then parted with hopes—the realisation of which, considering his advanced
age, I cannot but doubt—that we might meet again.
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.