Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎12r] (23/290)

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic
* W i 1 |
Majesty s Government.]
Printed for the Foreign Office, March 1919.
SECRET.
I.D.C.E., 6th Minutes.
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
Minutes of a Conference, held at the Foreign Office, on Thursday, February 13,
1919, at 3 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.LE.
(in the Chair).
The Right Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P.,
Secretary of State for India, India
Office.
Mr. J. E. Shuckburgh, C.B., 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. .
Lieutenant - General Sir H. V. Cox,
K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.S.I., Military
Secretary, 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. .
Mr. G. J. Kidston, Foreign Office.
Professor Sumpson, Foreign Office.
Major-General P. P. de B. Radcliffe,
C.B., D.S.O., Director of Military
Operations, War Office.
Brigadier-General Bartholomew, War
Office.
Captain H. E.-F. Aylmer, Admiralty.
Mr. E. H. Jones (Secretary).
Circulation of Con
ference Papers.
L The Chairman said that the late Eastern Committee had
enabled them to discuss at their weekly meetings any Middle East
questions that happened to arise. The present Conference was really
the Eastern Committee in a more concentrated form, but certain
dislocations had taken place and the new system had not proved
entirely satisfactory. He himself, it was true, received all telegrams
and papers relating to the Middle East, but they were no longer
graded under headings suited to the purposes of the Conference, and
they reached him mixed up in boxes with other departmental papers,
so that it had been almost impossible to obtain a coherent grasp of
the situation in the Caucasus, or indeed, in any of the other countries
with which the Conference dealt. Other members had been worse
off than himself. He quoted as an example two recent telegrams,
copies of which had not been circulated to them. The present
system was helter-skelter and bad. If the Conference was to
continue to have the same powers, duties, and functions as the
Eastern Committee, the only way was for Departments to see that
these telegrams and memoranda should be sent all round. This
could be done in one of two ways, either, by direct circulation to
members from the various Departments or through the Secretary of
the Conference.
. After a brief discussion, the Conference decided that—
(1.) The Departments concerned should send to the Secretary
copies of telegrams and memoranda on Middle Eastern
affairs in sufficient numbers for circulation to all members
of the Conference.
[987]—224
B