Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎213v] (426/544)

LORD ROBERT CECIL: I think it would be enough for us to give notice
of it. If we go to France she will want to say something about it. I should like
to think it over, but my present impression would be against an agreement wilth
France.
LORD CURZON: When our representatives go to Paris, the French, before
any long time has elapsed, will say, “We must have an agreement about the King
of the Hejaz; you and we must settle this matter; the Italians must be kept out,
and we must see what we can do.”
LORD ROBERT CECIL: I should say this is a thing which we could not
consult about in the absence of Italy.
LORD CURZON: That is interesting. Do you think, then, that we ought
to have a discussion with France and Italy about the future of King Hussein and
the Hejaz?
LORD ROBERT CECIL: Either with both or neither.
MR. MONTAGU: If you have neither, do you not come near to establishing
a protectorate?
LORD ROBERT CECIL: Yes, you do; you come to one of these semi things,
that is to say a negative protectorate.
LORD CURZON: Like Afghanistan, where you give the title of King to the
Amir and subsidise him?
MR. SHUCKBURGH: If you control has foreign relations, does not that
amount to a protectorate?
LORD ROBERT CECIL: I would not go so far as that with the King of the
Hejaz. I would say “ You must not have any foreign relations with anybody.”
LORD CURZON: Perhaps Sir Hamilton Grant may have something to say
as to the views of the Government of India.
SIR HAMILTON GRANT: The view of the Government of India is that
they would like to see as little interference with the Hejaz as possible in the future,
and that, on the whole, they would like to see the whole arrangements internation
alised. If France, Italy and ourselves could combine to subsidise the King, so far
as necessary, it should be done. We should then obviate the invidious position we
should get into if we assumed sole control, and we should at the same time stop
the other Powers from themselves intriguing in the Hejaz to our detriment. A
tripartite arrangement of the three Powers, and a sharing between them of the
subsidy, would probably be the simplest solution, and would relieve us of anxiety
in the future, and probably be the most satisfactory .solution to the Moslem world
as a whole, who would realise that we were not intending ourselves to assume
dbmination of the Holy Places.
LORD ROBERT CECIL: Supposing that unfortunately there was a copper
mine discovered in the Hejaz, would you allow anybody to exploit that?
SIR HAMILTON GRANT: I think not, without the express request of King
Hussein himself that some foreigner should come in and do it. I think all three
Powers should be under a self-denying ordinance not to accept any concession
except at the request of King Hussein, and with the consent of the other two
Powers. We should regard it as a sort of closed territory.
LORD CURZON: There was something to that effect in one of the contem
plated agreements, when M. Picot was in London and we were discussing commer
cial concessions in the Hejaz, that no one State should get any advantage of that
sort without mentioning it to the others. As to the subsidy, a tripartite agreement
no doubt would solve certain difficulties; it would make the burden easier for
ourselves. But are you not a little afraid of the position it would authorise the
Italians to take up? At the present moment their influence there is small, and
their interference is not important; but supposing Italy is one of the three Powers
to subsidise the King, and- the King succeeds in establishing a considerable posi
tion over large areas of Arabia, would not Italy, as one of three Powers, have a
voice? .