Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎24r] (47/348)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Gover nment.!
Printed for the War Cabinet. June 1919.
SECRET.
■'UHtiz J
L89509]
Earl Curzon to Mr. Balfour.
(No. 4099.)
Sir, Foreign Office, June 20, 1919. .
ON grounds of public policy I have been a good deal disturbed at the continuous
and as yet unarrested advance of the Italian and Greek forces in the western parts of
the Turkish dominions in Asia Minor, and I have the honour to transmit herewith a
statement from such information as is available in the-Foreign Office of the extent
to which that advance has so far in each of the two cases beenipursued. Though
these movements were in part undertaken in the first instance with the knowledge, and
in the case of the Greeks with the sanction, of the Allied Powers at Paris, they appear
to be continued in their later stages, so far as is known here, with no similar authority,
and in open disregard of the principle, laid down in the early days of the Paris
Conference, that its ultimate decisions should not be prejudiced by premature and
aggressive action in respect of the occupation of territory by any of the interested
States or Powers. Moreover, in the case of the Greeks in particular, they are alleged
to have been accompanied by scenes of discreditable and unprovoked outrage.
I am the more concerned at the occurrence of this twofold penetration because it
is apparently being prosecuted without interference or protest (save from the Turks)
at a time when the importance of retaining at least some portion of the Turkish
sovereignty and of the former Turkish dominions in Asia is reported to have received
a somewhat tardy recognition at the hands of the Allied Powers, although it must be
clear that the realisation of any such policy will be seriously compromised by the
presence in the regions affected of the forces of two States whose ulterior pretensions
so small an attempt is made to conceal. A further disquieting symptom is the constant
recurrence of warnings from our representatives at Constantinople of the consequences
that must ensue from these continued encroachments upon what remains of Turkish
sovereignty in Asia, and the likelihood that this part of the Middle East will thereby
be plunged into a state of renewed and, in all probability, protracted violence and
disorder.
The further these advances, whether of Greeks or of Italians, are pushed, the
greater becomes the difficulty of withdrawal, and the more inevitable the prospect of
future strife, if not of serious bloodshed.
In the various appreciations that reach the Foreign Office of the policy that is now
being pursued with regard to Turkey,'I cannot find any voice, that welcomes or
indeed defends these encroachments. And yet the persistence of the actors appears
successfully to effect what the considered judgment of the spectators declines to
approve.
I have ventured to submit this representation, not as a protest, which I cannot but
feel will be useless, but with a view to ascertaining whether it is in contemplation
to place any limit to the extension of these advances, and whether there is any ground
for regarding them as provisional in character and duration. I shall be very grateful
for any information that you may be able to give me on these points.
r ticivG &c
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.
Enclosure.
Italian and Greek Penetration in Asia Minor.
1. THE distribution of the Italian troops may be divided into two categories:—
(1.) The force at Korda, which the Director of Military Intelligence puts at two
companies and a brigade headquarters, but which an earlier report from
Constantinople estimates at 1,200 men, which is under General Milne’s
orders and is responsible for the patrol of the Anatolian Railway between
Konia and Eskishehr.