Reports and papers of the Egyptian Administration Committee [‎50r] (99/108)

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frnm the pr'hlems of the external relations of India. Further
I rou'ld separate the western problems of India's external
relations from the eastern, within the Department of course,
I would tentatively suggest that negotiations and considcrailca
of Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Kongolian questions should be
separated from Persian, Afghan, Arabian questions. Thus then
the British Foreign Office would approach this great British
protected hohairmiedan world from its pastern side, while the
Indian Foreign Office would approach it from the Western side.
Is it not clear that these two Departments of the State, 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, with their common interest
in the Mohammedan question; ought to be associated so that
their activities may be c o- o rd :> nated and confurm with one
another? I would therefore, suggest that the new Department
of the Foreign Office and the Western Department of the
Indian Foreign Office which I contemplate should be brought
under the Kiddle East Committee which has been devised for
the War, and should be made permanent, It is perhjvos too
el wav's
much to hope that there wlll/be a Minister without portfolio
of the position and interests and knowledge of Lord Curzon;
but a Committee pot which the Moslem problems of the India
Offroe and the Moslem problems of the Foreign Office could
be discussed toge ohe.eg a Comm ttee at wlxoso nc o 11.ngs such
problems as were common to the vholc area should be considered;
a Comru ^t^e which would bring Indian experi ence and policy e.nd
i* OxCi^n ^xi ice experience and policy into Ixaiir.crg/ with cnc c -
another; a Committee which would go for tp on cure a c onion
trend, of policy in relation to other countries interested in
the same matters; a Committee like the Middle East Committee
should be a permanent feature of British Imperial Organ! s-
atlon * ™ 3 would be another step in the cure of Department-*
al: ern in the British organisation. I he Foreign Office has
cnlucxf.p arranged a sort of co**ordination bekween the Bond 0 p