'Papers relating to transfer of Middle Eastern Affairs to the Colonial Office and creation of a new Department there, 1920-1921, with Cabinet notes of Milner, Montague, Churchill, self, and others' [‎56r] (111/136)

3
To
The Right Hon. W. S. Churchill, M.P.
Sir,
1. We were appointed by Cabinet Minute of the 11th January, 1921, to m;ike
recommendations for carrying out the Cabinet decisions of the 31st December, 1920, in
regard to the formation of a new Department under the Colonial Office to d“al with trie
administration of British mandated territories in the Middle East. We were instructed
to report to you by the 1st February for reference to the Prime Minister.
I—DEFINITION OF THE TERRITORIAL SPHERE OF THE NEW
DEPARTMENT.
2. In our terms of reference, which are set out in full on the opposite page, it is
laid down that the Department to be set up is to “ comprise in principle Mesopotamia,
Aden and Palestine.” We assume that it was intended that the term Palestine should
cover Trans-Jordania. We are, however, laced at the outset with the following
difficulty : Mesopotamia, Aden and Palestine are not conterminous. The large inter
vening area is sparsely inhabited by Arab tribes, who depend in the main on one or
other of these three territories for their contact with the outside world. The land
boundary of the Aden Protectorate is fixed on the West and North, but remains
undefined on the East, and the land boundaries of Mesopotamia and Palestine on the
south-west and east, respectively, have not yet been determined. Owing to the fact
that the nomad tribes in the adjoining territories move freely to and fro between the
desert and the more settled areas, it is questionable whether these boundaries can ever
be defined in a final and satisfactory manner.
3. We understand that Article 132 of the Treaty of Sevres provides that the
disposal of this Central Arabian area, with the exception of the Heiljaz, is to be made
by the Principal Allied Powers ; that it has been the intention of the Foreign Office to
obtain recognition from the other Principal Allied Powers of the special political
interests of Great Britain in these areas ; but that it has not yet been found possible to
approach them with this end in view.
Although the Kingdom of the Hedjaz has been recognized as an independent State,
none of its land boundaries have as yet been fixed.
We also understand that it was the intention of the Foreign Office to submit that
the delimitation of the boundaries of Mesopotamia and Palestine should be undertaken
by Great Britain as the mandatory for these two areas, in conjunction with the Arab
rulers concerned.
4. In considering the steps to be taken to form a new Department to deal with the
administration of Mesopotamia, Aden and Palestine, we have found it essential to take
into account the future of the intervening area, and the special difficulties arising out
of the absence of clearly defined boundaries. We have assumed that it was the
underlying intention of the Cabinet decisions of the 31st December last that all
administrative and political responsibilities which will devolve upon His Majesty s
Government in respect of the Arab areas of the Middle East should, as far as possible,
be placed under the control of one Department. The wording of our terms of reference
quoted above has encouraged us in this belief.
5. On the assumption that it % is the intention oi the Cabinet that the Middle
Eastern, or rather the Arab, problem should be treated as one organic whole, we consider
that the guiding principle should be that the new Department should be responsible for
directing policy as regards the whole Arabian peninsula, subject to certain qualifications,
which are discussed later, regarding the Kingdom of the Hedjaz.
6. AVe accordingly recommend, subject to certain reservations to which we
refer later, that the sphere of the new Department should include all the
territories south and east of the newly defined boundary between the French
mandated territovies of Syria and the British mandated territo ies of Palestine and
Mesopotamia. On the west this sphere would be bounded by the Mediterranean;
on the south-west by the frontier of Egypt and the Red Sea; on the south and
south-east by the Indian Ocean; on the north-east by the north-eastern boundary
of Mesopotamia and by the Arabian littoral of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .