أوراق بقلم كرزون بشأن الشرق الأدنى والأوسط [ظ‎‎١‎٧‎٢] (٣٤٨/٣٤٤)

2
resumed. I told his Excellency that 1 was about, the day after to-morrow, to make
a full statement at the Imperial Conference, and although the greater part of this
would be confidential and would not be published m the press, yet so much interest
was attached to the question of the Ruhr, and so much public misapprehension about-
it appeared to prevail, that I contemplated publishing only that portion of mv
remarks which would relate to the subject. 1 told his Excellency therefore that 1
should take advantage of the opportunity to say that in the opinion ot His Majesty s
Government the initiative now lay with the French Government, and that we
exjiected to receive an expression of the French views on the subject. We had
submitted our own proposals as far back as August last. T hey had not found favour,
and we had no fresh proposals or modifications of our own to put forward. Ihe
initiative therefore had passed to France, and the next step would appear to lie with
M. Poincare in submitting his views as to the manner in which the problem in its
international aspect should now be dealt with.
The Ambassador seemed for a moment to think that l would confine myself
to saying that the time for a conference or discussion had now arisen; but I told
him that I should go further than that, and should state plainly that in our view it
was from M. Poincare that the proposals should come.
His Excellency did not at all dispute my remarks; indeed, he repeated what
he had more than once said to me upon the subject. He undertook to transmit at
once what I had said to M. Poincare, and he felt sure himself that as soon as his
Government were convinced that the desistance from passive resistance was
effective—and he did not think that this should take long—the idea of a resumption
of discussion would be acceptable to the French Government.
My conversation had at any rate this advantage, that it was a direct intimation
to the French Government of what I proposed to say and what were the views of
His Majesty's Government on the present situation, so that at least we shall be free
from the suspicion of having sprung any surprise.
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.