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Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎18r] (35/290)

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The record is made up of 1 file (145 folios). It was created in 7 Jan 1919-7 Dec 1920. 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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3
v*)
n
Palestine and
Syria.
were no civil expenditure, well and good ; but if any were undertaken,
he thought it should not come under the War Office any more than
did similar expenditure in East Africa and Palestine.
Mr. \Vaterfield said the Treasury had always assumed that
railway expenditure should be met from a civil vote which, in the
present instance, would be Foreign Office funds
Mr. Montagu said before the 1st April expenditure was covered,
after that date it was not, but the responsibility for it remained the
same, and any civil expenditure after the 1st April must be con
ducted by the same authority. The 312,000b should be therefore
a W ar Office vote. He suggested there should be no expenditure
unless it could come under the “ military expenditure ” of the
Army of Occupation in the widest sense of the term. If the War
Office wanted something for the Army of Occupation, then it should
be paid for by the War Office. If, on the other hand, the War Office
did not want it, the expenditure should not be sanctioned.
Mr. Crosland said he feared that a good deal of capital and
current expenditure was being carried out for purposes of future
development, which could hardly be called military, and it would be
difficult to bring it under the head of requirements of the Army of
Occupation. The War Office wished the control of civil expenditure
to be taken over by the Foreign Office. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer, when Secretary of State for India, had told the War
Office he thought that civil expenditure was going on in Mesopotamia
under a military guise.
Mr. Shuckburgh said that civil expenditure was checked by the
Government of India. In reply to a question from the Chairman
he added that the surplus revenue had been paid to the Treasury.
Mr. Baldwin said he would like to see all capital expenditure
held up until we knew what was to happen to the country.
The Chairman said it was generally accepted that when a
country was taken over such development expenditure as Mr.
Crosland had referred to was a necessary consequence. Things
could not be permitted to come to a standstill or to rust. What
was needed was not to stop spending, but to see that none of it was
wasteful. Nor, in his opinion, could the expenditure legitimately
come under the Foreign Office Vote, for the civil administration was
not under the Foreign Office. It was being carried on temporarily
bv 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. . It seemed to him that, provided a caution were
issued to the authorities in Mesopotamia to be extremely careful in
embarking on any civil expenditure from the 1st April up to July,
the present scheme could be continued until the Peace Conference
had reached their decision.
The Conference decided —
That a telegram should be sent by the War Office to the
authorities in Mesopotamia asking them to be extremely
cautious about embarking on civil expenditure between the
dates of the 1st April and the end of July, L919, and
containing a special query as to whether the Mesopotamian
railways were now regarded as civil or military.
3. The Chairman said that the Treasury Minute (Appendix I)
dealt with the subject of Palestine under the four headings of
O.E.T.A. South, O.E.T.A. East, O.E.T.A. West, and O.E.T.A. North.
The financial position seemed to vary from district to district. The
Southern Area was under General Allen by’s direct control, the
Eastern was administered through an Arab, with a M. Moulin as

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Content

This file is composed of papers produced by the Foreign Office's Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs. It consists entirely of printed minutes of meetings of the conference, most of which are chaired by George Curzon.

Those attending include senior representatives of the Foreign Office, 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. (most notably the Secretary of State for India), the War Office, the Admiralty, the Air Ministry, and the Treasury (including the Chancellor of the Exchequer). Other notable figures attending include Harry St John Bridger Philby and Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell.

The meetings concern British policy in the Middle East, and mainly cover the following geographical areas: Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, Trans-Caspia, Trans-Caucasia, the Caspian Sea, Palestine, Persia, Hejaz, and Afghanistan. Some of the meetings also touch on matters beyond the Middle East (e.g. wireless telegraphy in Tibet, ff 79-80).

Recurring topics of discussion include railways (chiefly in relation to Mesopotamia), Bolshevik influence in the Middle East (particularly in Persia and Trans-Caspia), and relations between King Hussein [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī] and Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd].

Several sets of minutes also contain related memoranda as appendices.

Extent and format
1 file (145 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 145, 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.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎18r] (35/290), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/275, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100070539234.0x000024> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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