Papers written by Curzon on the Near and Middle East [‎99r] (197/348)

[This Document is the Propert y of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
EASTERN (Turkey).
[NoveM)I>er S.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
[E 12338/1/44]
No. 1.
The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston to Sir G. Buchanan (Rome,).
(No. 951.)
gi rj Foreign Office, November 8 , 1921.
I ASKED the Italian Ambassador to come and see me to-day in order to have a
talk with him about the situation which had arisen in consequence of the conclusion of
the Franklin-Bouillon Agreement with the Angora Government
I gave Signor de Martino a succinct account of all that had so lar passed in the
matter, including my representations to the French Government, with which the
Count de Saint-Aulaire had returned to Paris. I pointed out how completely at
variance the French proceedings had been, both with the treaty obligations of the
Allies and also with the policy of mutual co-operation for the settlement of the Near
and Middle Eastern question, to which I thought that, after the unsuccessful attempts
of both the French and the Italians to break away last year, we had since all pledged
our faith to adhere. The Italian Government was, I thought, as much concerned as
ourselves in the action of the French, because the privileges obtained by the latter
appeared in many cases to apply not to the French zone of economic picfeience only,
but to the whole of Asia Minor, including the Italian sphere. 1 hoped that on all these
grounds I might rely upon Italian support in the stand which 1 had been compelled
to make. • i i
The Ambassador replied that the Marquis della Torretta had not yet received the
text of the agreement, and had not, therefore, communicated with him about it; but
he had already informed him of the impression that had been produced in this country
on its publication. . . f ,
He then went into a long disquisition about the importance to Italy ot the
Tripartite Agreement, not so much because of its technical provisions as from the
effect that it had upon Italian public opinion. Italy could not relinquish her rights
under this agreement, and she would have to resist any encroachment upon them.
All this the Ambassador explained at great length, and he dwelt so exclusively on
that subject that I was compelled to recall his attention to the much more serious
aspect of the French action, namely, the effect that it could hardly fail to have upon
the larger question of a common Allied policy vis-a-vis the Greeks and the Turks. It
France were left at liberty to act in such a manner without remonstrance, the Italian
representative at Angora might think that he enjoyed a similar liberty. I earnestly
hoped that nothing of the kind would take place, and that the Ambassador would
renew to me his assurances of the very circumscribed area of Signor Tuozzi’s
conversations.
Thi s he did, explaining, as he had done before, that they related to matters
arising out of the Adalia question alone. On the larger issue he adhered to all that
we had both said on recent occasions as to the necessity of absolute confidence between
the Allies and the extreme unwisdom of any one of them acting apart from the others;
but, as soon as he got the Marquis della Torretta’s views, he would be able to speak to
me more confidenlly on the matter.
The Ambassador hinted once again, as he had often done before, at a resumption,
when the Turkish question was out of the way, of the close relations between Great ^
Britain and Italy in the Eastern Mediterranean, which he has repeatedly declared to
have existed before the war. Though there were conversations about the matter in
the time of Lord Grey of Fallodon, I have never been able to discover that they
resulted in an agreement; nor have I been able to find out exactly what the Italian
Government desires, except British support in all her Mediterranean undertakings
have hitherto, therefore, rather evaded the question, feeling that it was for Italy, by a
sustained policy of good faith—in which, up to the present time, she has been
decidedly lacking—to justify the creation of closer relations than those which already
exist.
I am, Ac.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.
[7234 h—l] xf