Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [‎154r] (311/380)

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of the Arab movement and the Caliphate in 1!)15.* On the occasion of* the occupation
—sof the Bagdad district by the British forces in 1917, His Majesty’s Government
informed the Persian Government that the British military authorities would do all in
their power to protect the Shia Holy Places.t
Our commitments, written, verbal, or implicit, to the “ Mujtahids ” and inhabitants of these Holy
Cities since our occupation of Bagdad vilayet can only be reported upon adequately by the Chief
Political Officer attached to General Marshall’s Army, and this is also true of our commitments to the
rest of the population in Mesopotamian occupied territory.
(e.) In reply to a memorial by Syrians resident in Egypt, His Majesty’s Govern
ment declared on the 11th June, 1918, that, “in areas formerly under Ottoman
dominion occupied by the Allied forces during the present war, it is the wish and
desire of His Majesty’s Government that the future government should be based upon
the principle of the consent of the governed,” and that “ this policy has and will
continue to have the support of His Majesty’s Government.” We have since declared
jointly with France (No. 14) that :—
“ The aim which France and Great Britain have in view in prosecuting in the East
the war let loose by German ambition is the complete and final liberation of the peoples
so long oppressed by the Turks, and the establishment of national governments and
administrations deriving their authority from the initiative and free choice of the native
populations.
“ In order to give effect to these inteutions, France and Great Britain have agreed
to encourage and assist the establishment of native governments and administrations in
Syria and Mesopotamia already liberated by the Allies, and in the territories which they
are proceeding to liberate, and they have agreed to recognise such governments as soon
as they are effectively established. So far from desiring to impose specific institutions
upon the populations of these regions, their sole object is to ensure, by their support
and effective assistance, that the governments and administrations adopted by these
regions of their own free will shall be exercised in the normal way. The function which
the two Allied Governments claim for themselves in the liberated territories is to ensure
impartial and equal justice for all; to facilitate the economic development of the
country by encouraging local initiative; to promote the diffusion of education ; and to
put an .end to the divisions too long exploited by Turkish policy.”
4. Kurdistan.
This country may be defined as the territory south of the Bohtan River, and east
of the Tigris and the Jebel Hamrin, which has hitherto belonged to Turkey, and is
bounded on the east by the Persian frontier.
We are pledged to King Husein that the parts of this territory south of a line
running west-and-east from Jeziret-ib'n-Omar, on the Tigris, through Amadia to the
Persian frontier, shall be “ independent ” and “ Arab.”
We are also pledged to France (No. 11, Article 1) that the same parts shall be
included in the independent Arab State or Confederation which is to be recognised and
upheld by us, and this pledge has been adhered to provisionally by Italy (No. 12,
Article 1).
It has also been agreed that in these parts France shall have political and economic
priority north of a line running up the Lesser Zab River, through Khoi Sanjak to the
Persian frontier and Great Britain a similar priority south of that line.
We have a free hand in the parts of Kurdistan north of the Jeziret-Amadia line,
since they were included in the Yellow Area assigned to Russia. These parts contain
the settlements of the Nestorian Christians (Assyrians) in the upper valley of the
Greater Zab, and we are under a certain obligation to secure their future, since they were
under the auspices of an Anglican Mission before the war, and have suffered atrocities
during it at the hands of the Turks and Kurds.
We are thus committed to the partition of Kurdistan into three sections, in the two largest of
which certain rights are secured to ourselves, the Trench, and the Arabs, but none to the Kurds.
5. Syj'ia (including parts of Jezireh that do not go with Irak).
(a.) Lebanon : In the protocol signed at Constantinople on the 6th September, 1864,
by the representatives of Turkey, Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia,
f 60225/55826/17.
* 164776/34982/15.