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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎52r] (105/501)
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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎52r] (105/501)

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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil'
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Ref: Mss Eur F112/294

The record is made up of 251 folios (1 file). It was created in 15 Nov 1922-3 Nov 1923. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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[180 q— 1] «
*
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
—I
EASTERN. [December 16.]
CONFIDENTIAL. Section 1.
[E 14103/13003/44] No. 1.
Memorandum 'presented by the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston to Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. on
December 14.— {Received in Foreign Office December 16, 1922.)
Mosul.
THIS memorandum is submitted by the British delegation in order to summarise
the reasons for which the demand made by the Turkish delegation for the restoration
to Turkey of the Mosul Vilayet cannot possibly be entertained.
These reasons are racial, political, historical and economic. In each case they
contradict and destroy the arguments, based on the same considerations, upon which
it is understood, from such explanations as have been received, that the Turkish
delegation relies in support of its case.
1. Racial.
The population of the Mosul Vilayet consists of Kurds, Arabs, “Turks"
(Turkomans) and Christians, with some thousands of Yazidis. The number of these
various elements may be deduced from two tables of statistics, which were compiled
by British officers employed in the vilayet, who, partly on horseback, and partly with
the aid of the roads made and the motor transport introduced since the British
occupation, visited most of the corners of the vilayet in the years after the war.
Table A is an estimate made in 1919, in which the population of the vilayet is shown
by religions. Table B is an estimate made in 1921 as the result of a close and more
prolonged investigation. The population in this table is divided according to race.
The total population of the Mosul Vilayet is returned as 703,000 odd in the 1919
estimate and 785,000 odd in the 1921 estimate, the difference being due to an increase
in the population in the Mosul plain area, formed by the Mosul plain and the
surrounding hills, arising from—
1. The return of large numbers of the population from the Turkish or Arab
armies.
2. The return of still larger numbers of families to villages which, owing to the
state of starvation resulting from war conditions, had been abandoned
before the British occupation.
3. The settlement of a large number of Assyrian refugees.
It was established by these investigations that the whole of the great town of
Mosul, the whole of the country north of Mosul on the right bank of the Tigris as far
as the boundary of the vilayet, the whole of the country south of Mosul on the right
bank of the Tigris, and most of the country south of Mosul on the left bank of that
river as far as the Erbil-Kirkuk-Kifri road, is Arab.
As to the “ Turks," they are not Osmanli Turks; they call themselves Turkomans,
and the Turanian language they speak resembles Azerbaijani rather than the
Turkish of Constantinople. They are undoubtedly descendants of Turkomans wlio
came to Irak long before Osman founded the Ottoman Empire, probably from those
Turkomans whom the Abbaside Caliphs hired to defend their ternlory. The theory
that the Turkomans are descendants of what was formerly a foreign mercenary
garrison is supported by their distribution. Tall Afar, an almost exclusively Turko
man town, stands guard 45 miles west of Mosul on the border of the Syrian desert.
Except for this town and the neighbouring Turkoman villages, and for
a few scattered Turkoman villages in the Mosul plain, the whole of
the Turkoman population is distributed along the eastern road from
Mosul to Bagdad, notably in and around the towns of Erbil, Altun Keupru, Kerkuk,

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Content

Letters and papers on the frontier between Iraq (also written as Irak in the file) and Turkey, with particular reference to Mosul and questions concerning oil. The file consists mainly of correspondence between Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs George Curzon, and officials in the Foreign Office, Air Ministry, Colonial Office and Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. [Mustafa İsmet İnönü]. The contents of the file are as follows:

Following documents are undated:

  • Lord Balfour to League of Nations. Speech: The frontier between Turkish territory and the territory of Iraq
  • The President of the League of Nations. Reply: after Speech by Balfour
  • Typewritten report: The question of Mosul
  • Typewritten report: The Question of Mosul

The file also includes handwritten notes by Curzon on the Mosul vilayet and groups residing there.

Extent and format
251 folios (1 file)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 251; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎52r] (105/501), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/294, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100130546285.0x00006a> [accessed 15 June 2026]

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Reference
Mss Eur F112/294
Title
'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil'
Pages
1r:28v, 28ar:28av, 29r:72v, 91r:167v, 170r:218r, 218r:251v
Author
East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
Usage terms
Open Government Licence