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'THE WAR WITH TURKEY. Memorandum by Political Department, India Office.' [‎53r] (5/8)

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The record is made up of 4 folios. It was created in 20 Jun 1916. It was written in English. 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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conditions that would be ucceptuble to either Iviissiu or inuice, to wliom we
are now too deeply committed to accept them ourselves. ' Fortunately,
therefore, such proposals, il they come, are not now likely to bs dangerous.
(6) A more serious contingency is that Germany may sooner or later
put forward proposals for peace which, while giving the Allies all they want
in Europe, and even abandoning the " freedom of the seas," will involve
only the maintenance of the integrity oi the Ottoman Empire subject to
guarantees as regards internal reforms, and even some measure of
devolution, such as that proposed by the Inter-departmental Committee on
the future of Asiatic Turkey. To Russia alone of the Allies such terms
would be "prima facie unacceptable; but some modus vivendi might be found
between Germany and her, while for the rest of us they would contain
much .that is on the suriace attractive. Ihey would be popular in India,
where Moslem feeling desires to see Turkey spared. They would accord
with that deep-rooted belief in the inherent excellence of the Turk which
still survives in this country and is already reappearing in the Press, in
spite of centuries of experience to the contrary. They would be the line
of least resistance for the war-weary. It would even he pointed out that
the Inter-departmental Committee had recommended something of the kind
on its merits. Ought we not to accept them? Would it not be very
dilhcult for Great Britain alone of the Towers to refuse them, if she alone
had failed to defeat Turks in the lield ?
The temptation would be a subtle one. It would be foreign to the
purpose of this Memorandum to examine the recommendations of the
Committee and show in detail that they provide no safeguard whatever
against the recovery by Germany of the supreme position in Turkey which
she was found to possess in 1914. That has been done in a separate memo
randum. It must sullice hereto point out that the Committee, writing a year
ago in entirely different circumstances, were avowedly seeking for " a solution
which, while securing the vital interests of Great Britain, will give to Turkey
" in Asia some prospect ol' a permanent existence " (paragraph 98). They
were not, however, called upon to examine the prior question whether the
permanent existence of the Ottoman Empire is compatible with the vital
interests of Great Britain ; and the wider considerations affecting Turkey as
a world-power, and the relations of Great Britain and Germany with Islam—
which the progress of events since the Committee's report has brought clearly
to light, and which it is the purpose of this Memorandum to emphasise
did not engage their attention. In the light of subsequent events, one con
clusion only seems to follow from the premisses stated in the earlier part of
their report, viz., that the only completely and finally satisfactory settlement
of Asiatic Turkey is one that involves either partition, or division into
spheres of influence on lines such as those which have actually been
adopted in the recent Uusso-Franco-British agreements ; and it is perhaps
only necessary to add now that if the integrity of the Ottoman Empire were
consistent with British interests, it could hardly be proposed by Germany
compatibly with her own, for it is the foundation on which (if she loses her
colonies) she must seek to reconstruct her Welt Politik. Whatever safeguards
we may devise on paper, her whole energy will'be ^devoted to evading them,
and to adapting her methods of politico-commercial penetration to the new
conditions. Emphasis has been laid above on the Mittel-Europa scheme.
But it will not have escaped notice that the failure of Germany to bring
about that bloc will not materially lessen the danger to British interests of
leaving the Ottoman Empire intact, or sufficiently extensive and strong to
be an object of German cupidity or to be capable of playing an effective
part in world politics. It did not require the existence of a Central
European hloc to make German influence supreme over the Turkish
Government in 1914, or to enable Germany to undermine in a few years
the results attained by a century of British policy, and her policy in Turkey
in the last 15 years has not been the least of the contributory causes of the
present war. We can only conjecture the future from the past; and if the
bloc fails—as it will if the Allies are decisively victorious—it must be
assumed that German policy will be more than ever directed to the
acquisition of a supreme commercial, and therefore political, position in
Turkey, and that that position will be utilised to the detriment of British
s 307 b

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Memorandum, written by Sir Frederic Arthur Hirtzel, dated 25 May 1916, examining the implications of war with Turkey on Great Britain particularly the importance to Germany of a Turco-Ottoman alliance and the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, and the corresponding importance of its dissolution to Great Britain.

The memorandum discusses Germany's need for raw materials and its realisation that supplies from Asiatic Turkey may take years to establish; the German threat to the Suez Canal and the Dardanelles; the threat to India from Mesopotamia; the dangers of Pan-islamism; the potential risks of waging war on a Moslem [Muslim] power, particularly given British relations in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; and the possible outcomes of the war with Germany and the likely position of Turkey in relation to them.

Enclosed with the memorandum are two appendices:

  • Appendix I: Extract from an article by Dr Hans Delbrück in the Schwäbische Merkur 17 May 1916, summarising the German ideal of 'weltpolitik' (world policy);
  • Appendix II: Extract memorandum by Sir Mark Sykes on "The problem of the Near East", dated 20 June 1916.

Sir Frederic Arthur Hirtzel is not named on the memorandum as its author, however IOR/L/PS/18/B234 refers to him as its author.

Extent and format
4 folios
Physical characteristics

Foliation: The foliation for this description commences at folio 51 and terminates at folio 54, as it is part of a larger physical volume; 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. An additional foliation sequence is also present in the volume; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled, and can be found in the same position as the main sequence.

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English in Latin script
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'THE WAR WITH TURKEY. Memorandum by Political Department, India Office.' [‎53r] (5/8), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B233, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023622456.0x000006> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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