Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎46v] (92/348)

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Treaties with Enemy Powers, it is impossible to isolate these iactors. In the jegnm
of Cilicia the problem is more than usually complicated by the intermingling of ttiose
racial elements, whose interests it is the object of the Allied Governments to protect.
3. The Allies note with pleasure that the United States Government welcome t ic
provision made in the Treaty for the representation of Russia on the Straits Com
mission. The United States Government would, however, appear to be under a
misapprehension in supposing that the scope of this Commission is to be extended to
the administration of Constantinople itself. „ ,
4. The question of the Straits has formed the subject of prolonged and carctul
consideration with a view to safeguarding freedom of passage, and it is hoped and
believed that the United States Government will be in full accord with the provisions
agreed upon. It has obviously been impossible to defer the drafting of so vital a
chapter of the Turkish Treaty pending the eventual consultation with Russia.
5. The decision of the Allied Governments to incorporate Eastern Thrace,
outside the zone of Constantinople, in the Kingdom of Greece, appears generally to
conform with the views of the United States Government. The statistical data in
the possession of the Allied Governments do not, however, support Mr. Colby s conten
tion regarding the Bulgarian character of the critics of Adrianople and Kirk Kilissa
and of the surrounding territory. On the contrary all sources, sometimes most
widely divergent in other respects, agree in estimating the Bulgarian population as
a marked minority compared with either Turks or Greeks. The effects of the
inter-emigration clauses in the Turco-Bulgarian 1 reaty of 1913 in diminishing the
Bulgarian element in Northern Thrace must also be borne in mind.
G. It has in the past been the policy of the Turkish Government to endeavour to
play one European Power off against the other with a view to retarding or evading
the execution of necessary reforms. It is the desire of the Allies to present such
tactics in the future. It'is, therefore, the intention of the Governments of France,
Great Britain and Italy to conclude a self-denying ordinance which shall avoid any
semblance of rivalry or competition among themselves and which shall conduce to
the more effective protection of the minorities still remaining within the Turkish
Empire. It is needless to observe that such an ordinance only binds its signatories,
and that there is nothing therein to impede the free entry for commercial and economic
purposes of the nationals of other States into any part of the area mentioned in the
Allied Agreement.
7. The Allies share to the full America's interest in the establishment of an
independent Armenia. It has been their earnest desire to accord to Armenia the
territory which she might reasonably claim for her present needs and future
expansion. The problem has proved to be the most difficult of the whole Treaty and
the obstacles with! which the Allies have found themselves confronted have at times
seemed almost insufferable. The matter is being fully and frankly dealt with in a
separate communication to the United States Government.
8. The Allied Governments are in accord with the United States Government in
holding that Turkey should relinquish bv the Treaty her former rights over Mesopo
tamia,°Arabia, Palestine, Syria and the Islands. The precision with which the
arrangements for the future status of these territories can be formulated in the
Turkish Treaty has of necessity been governed by the necessity of expediting the
conclusion of the Treaty with Turkey—a conclusion wdiich, as already pointed out.
has been deferred to the limits of expediency.
9. The settlement of the district of Smyrna has proved one of the most difficult
problems with which the Allied Governments w r ere faced. The most impartial
statistics at their proposal show 7 that at a date prior to the forcible expulsion of the
subject population from this area, a majority of Greeks existed in the Sanjak of
Smvrna and in some of the neighbouring cazas. Past experience of the Turkish
treatment of this Greek population, who have preserved in a marked degree and in
spite of oppression their national characteristics, have led the Allies to grant their
strong claim to' be placed under Greek administration. On the other hand, the
interior of this region, in which the Turkish population gradually increases until
it markedly predominates over the Greek, is connected economically with Smyrna.
Indeed, Smyrna forms the present natural outlet for the trade of a large part of
Western Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. . Moreover, the Allied Governments have been advised that the
immediate and complete cession of an area, so closely linked with the economy of
Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. and for so long a time an integral part of the Asiatic provinces of Turkey
would, in practice, have aroused national feeling to a degree which might have
rendered the rest of the contemplated settlement of Turkey difficult, if not impossible.