Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎260r] (519/544)

ANNEX.
Shorthand Notes of a Meeting of the Committee held in Lord Curzon s Room at the
Privy Council Office on Thursday, December 2(5, 1918, at 12 noon.
MINOR STATES AND CHIEFTAINS IN ARABIA.
LORD CURZON : We will take to-day the other States and chieftains ia Arabia
who were not covered by our general discussion of the Arabian situation arising out of
the position of the King of the Hejaz. In some respects the problem is as difficult as
any we have had to approach, not because of the importance of the issues raised,
for they are, both individually and collectively, rather small, but because of the
relationships of the chiefs, which differ materially from each other, although all ot them
have been brought into some form of relationship with Great Britain, which it seems
essential, in our general interests in Arabia, to maintain. A number of papers- 1 'have
been circulated to the Committee, bothffiy the 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. and the Foreign Office, about
the matter, and I will endeavour briefly to disentangle the situation, dealing as
concis ly as I can with the different elements concerned, and with the chieis who fall
into the several groups.
If you will imagine the Arabian Peninsula before you, I will commence at the
south-western point of Aden, and deal with the southern shores of Arabia and that
part of the country the connection of which with Great Britain has been the longest,
and which really is not affected, although it has in parts been distuibed by ^ i e
occurrences of the war. About Aden itself it is unnecessary to say a word. The
position of Aden is known. The hinterland of Aden, our position there, and our
relations with the chiefs there will have to be re-established after the war. I he
humiliating position in which we have been placed in the hinterland at no great
distance from Aden itself is already, owing to the fact of the Armistice, at an end, and
our agreements with the French specially provdde for the readjustment of the frontiers
of the Aden protectorate. We have there treaty relations, with two Sultans, the
Sultan of Sher and Mokallah and the Sultan of Sokotra and Kishm. and my impression
from the papers is that we have just concluded a new agreement with the former : is not
that so ?
MR. SHUCKBURGH: No. We have proposed to send a vice-consul there
recently.
LORD CURZON : I think we have done or are doing more, but I need not
interrupt the meeting to discuss the point. Whether we have or have not, practically
he is on the footing of a pre-war chief, whose relations with us, and with us alone,
cannot be disputed. The Sultan of Lahej is being reinstated, if he has not already
been reinstated, and, broadly speaking, one may say of Aden and the Aden lunteiland,
an 1 of the chiefs and tribes in the hinterland, that they are British inteiests, and on b ,r
British interests, and the idea of any other Power having an interest there cannot be
considered, nor for that matter, so far as I know, apart from Turkey, has it ever >een
suggested. * xu u
" Then, passing round the coast of Hadramaut, we come, as we approach the shores
of India, to Muscat, and of Muscat it is only necessary .to say this, that although some
of our difficulties with the French, arising out of their attitude, have .been mitigated
in recent years, there still bangs over us the Anglo-French Declaration of 186^, in
which we guaranteed with France the independence of Muscat. The protectorate
which we exercise over that country falls little short of annexation, and is undoubtedly
inconsistent with its independence; but at times of trouble the French ha\e always
been able to flourish this old Declaration in our faces, and there are moments, as, for
instance, when 1 was in India and the incident of Bui der Jisseh occurred, in which it
be omes a very serious source of trouble. When M. Picot was here in the course of
last year we had a meeting at the Foreign Office, with Mr. Balfour in the chan, at
which a rearrangement with France of our general, relations with Arabia ovei t le
entire fn-ld was under discussion, and a formula was sought to be discoveied which
w<»uld involve the general recognition by France of our superior political influence in
Arabia. Incidentally the question of Muscat was raised, btress was laid upon it by
the representatives of the Foreign Office and by myself, and M. Picot appeared to
indicate that the French Foreign Office would not be averse from sin rendei mg their
* E.C. 2201, 2207, 2214, 2302, 2340, 2350, 2412, 2454, 2467, 2525, 2599.
780] C