ملف ١٩١٦/٣٥٧٩ "تركيا: مستقبل القسطنطينية" [و‎‎٤‎٣] (٥٣٠/٩٤)

even in Constantinople itself, contrary to the beliof, I
believo, entertained by most people in this country, perhaps
by some of us at this table, the furies arc not a majority of the
population.
Those arc the factors are regards population v/ith vh ich we
have to deal.
To what extent are we committed with regard to Constanti
nople b$ anything that has been said by us or by our Allies during
tho war ?
In the earlier days of tho war, in iiarch 1915, ;ir„,.squith *s
Government entered into an engagement with the Kussian Government^
if tho war was successful, to hand over to hussia not only
Constantinople but a substantial strip of territory on both
sides of tho btraits. This strip of territory subtended not only
the Bosphorus but the boa of Marmora and the Dardanelles, and it
would have been placing Russia not only in possession of tho City
itself but of the whole of the approaches to and the exits thorefror
It is unnecessary for us to discuss here the i.isdom or the policy
of that act. I profoundly deplored it at the time, because I
regarded it jbas fraught with great danger to the common cause, and
even to Russia herself, who, I think, would have suffered irramed-
iably had she boon persuaded to ooiao down from tho 1'orth and embark
on the wholly different sphere of politics which the possession
of Byzantium would have opened out before her. Thr.it is, however,
only a dictum of my own. Russia has disappeared .from the
scene, the treaty has lapsed, and we need not spend much of our ^
time in considering it.
The second stage was when, in January 1917, wo drew up, in
conference with our Allies in Downing Street, the famous declarat
ion of our aims in reply to the American iioto. X forgot the exact
terms employed; but we did distinctly include in that statement *
the expulsion of the Turk from Suropo. blight apparent modification
of that attitude have been visible since. Our Brim© Minister, in
a speech which ho made in January of tho present year, used this
language« He said that Great Britain did not challenge the main
tenance of Turkey or of tho Turks in the; homeland of the Turkish
race with its capital at Constantinople. Asia Minor is not the