Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎149r] (297/348)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s Government.i
EASTERN.
! ()ctober 31.]
CONFIDENTIAL
Section 1.
[E 11909/27/44]
No. 1.
The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston to Lord Hardinge (Paris'.
My Lord, ^ Foreign Office, October 31, 1922?.
THE French Ambassador came to me this afternoon with the information that
the Kemalist authorities were opening recruiting offices in different parts of 1 brace,
and had announced the intention of raising two divisions of I urks in that country foi
the defence of Thrace and Constantinople. He pointed out that this was entirely
contrary to the provisions of the Mudania Agreement, and that it could not be toleiated.
He asked accordingly if I had any confirmation of this report, and whether, in any
case, I would telegraph to our representative in Constantinople to join with his
colleagues in protesting against this unwarrantable proceeding.
I replied that it had not yet been reported to me, but that 1 would certainly take
the action he suggested. .
This led me to enquire what was now the view of the French (Tovernmeut about
the attitude of the Kemalist Party. I judged from his reply that the honeymoon was
now well over, and that even the Divorce Court was not a remote alternative, for his
Excellency told me that, the conduct of the Kemalist Turks was becoming absolutely
insupportable, both in Europe and in Asia; that their pretensions would have to be
firmly resisted ; and that in Smyrna, where they had desecrated and destroyed the
European cemetery, that part of it which had been the chief object of their sacrilege
had been the French cemetery.
I learnt with interest from the Ambassador these symptoms of a sharp reaction on
the part of our Allies. • ,
The Count de Saint-Aulaire went on to ask me to take advantage of the presence
in this country of the Emir Abdullah, from I ransjordania, to press upon him the
arrest of the persons who had been implicated in the attempt to assassinate Ceneiul
Gouraud. . , . , T n
I said that this was not a case with which I was personally familiar, since it was
in the hands of the Colonial Office; but I would take steps to inform the new
Secretary of State for the Colonies of the request that the Ambassador had made.
The Ambassador then repeated to me, with considerable hesitation and as though
h>' were performing a most unpleasant task, the request for the recall of oui consul-
general in Tunis, Mr. Sarell, which he had already submitted without any success to
Sir Eyre Crowe. , i ™ A n j
I informed him that I entirely agreed with the reply of the Lermanent Under
secretary. It seemed to me an extraordinary thing, the attitude of the British
consul-general having been completely vindicated by what had happened, that the
Erench Government should now propose to us that he should be withdrawn, wheieas
the French Governor-General, to whose errors the whole contretemps had been due,
was to be left in possession of the field. 1 was not much addicted to recommending
to foreign Governments the withdrawal of any of their high officeis, but, if anyone had
to be retired in consequence of recent events in Funis, it seemed to me that the chief
French representative was the man who was marked out for the change.
The Ambassador could only reply that some of the letters which Mr. Sarell had
addressed to the French Governor-General were lacking in courtesy, and that, when 1
was Governor-General in India, I should not have liked to be addressed in a similai
way by a consul-general.
I indicated that the two cases were hardly in pan materia, and expressed my
inability to take any action of the nature proposed^
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.