ملف ١٩١٦/٣٥٧٩ "تركيا: مستقبل القسطنطينية" [و‎‎١‎١‎٥] (٥٣٠/٢٣٨)

Enclosure No. 1.
D.-o., No. 209-D., dated Delhi, the 24th November 1916 (Very confidential).
From—The Hon'ble Mr. A. H. Grant, C.S.I., C.I.E., Foreign Secretary to the
Government of India in the Foreign and Political Department,
To—
The Hon'ble Mr. L. Davidson, C.S.I., Chief Secretary to the Government of
Madras.
J. E. C. Jukes, Esq., Officiating Secretary to the Government of Bombay,
Political Department.
The Hon’ble Mr. J. H. Kbrr, C.I.E., Chief Secretary to the Government of
Bengal.
The Hon’ble Mr. R. Burn, Chief Secretary to the Government of the United
Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
The Hon'ble Mr. J. P. Thompson, Chief Secretary to the Government of the
Punjab.
The Hon’ble Mr. W. F. Rice, C.S.I., Chief Secretary to the Government of
Burma.
The Hon'ble Mr. H. Coupland, Chief Secretary to the Government of Bihar
and Orissa.
The Hon'ble Sir Benjamin Robertson, K.C.S.I., K.C.M.G., Chief Com
missioner of the Central Provinces.
The Hon ; ble Sir A. Earle, K.C.I.E., Chief Commissioner of Assam.
W. M. Hailey, Esq., C.S.I,, C.I.E., Chief Commissioner of Delhi.
The HoiPble Mr. S. M. Fraser, C.S.I., C.I.E., Resident at Hyderabad.
The Hon’ble Mr. O V. Bosanquet, C.S.I., C.I.E., Agent to the Governor-
General in Central India.
The Hon'ble Lieutenant-Colonel A. McConaghey, C.I E., Agent to the
Governor-General in Baluchistan.
The Hon’ble Sir E. G. Colvin, K.C.LE., Chief Commissioner of Ajmer-
Merwara.
The Hon’ble Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George Roos-Keppel, K.C.S.I.,
K.C.I.E., Chief Commissioner and Agent to the Governor-General in the
North-West Frontier Province.
I am desired to inform you that His Majesty’s Government have decided
shortly to publish an agreement concluded between the British and Russian
Governments regarding the Straits and Constantinople. This agreement was
made in March 1915, and it provides that the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora,
Constantinople, Southern Thrace, up to the Enos Midia line, with Tenedos and
Imbros and part of the Asiatic coast between the Bosphorus and the river
Sakharia, and a point to be fixed on in the Gulf of Ismid, should be incorporated
in the Russian Empire, subject to the satisfactory conclusion of the war and the
realisation of the desiderata of Erance and Great Britain. His Majesty’s
Government propose to publish simultaneously with the agreement a note a
A ■ r of His Excellency the Governor in Council
the information Honour the Lieutemvnt-uovtrnoi m loaueu.
of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor.
COpy Of which IS enclosed for — - - - your information.
2 The Government of India fully realise that the publication at the
present iuncture of an announcement of the intended dismemberment of Turkey
is not unlikely to create a very profound sensation among the Moslem com-
munity of India and in Afghanistan and have represented their views fully to
His Majesty’s Government. There are, however, strong international
arguments in favour of the immediate publication of this announcement. Eor
one thing it is desirable to lay to rest once and for all, the suspicions with
which British policy is still regarded in certain Russian circles ; lor another the
Russian Government feel they could hardly publish their mteoded manifesto
regarding Poland, the publication of which cannot for military reasons be
postponed much longer, without letting the Russian people know that their
own aspirations with regard to Constantinople are also to be satisfied at the
end of the war.
3. In order to minimise the effect of the announcement in India and
Afghanistan, the Government of India lune recommended to the Secretary
of State that no official communique on the subject should be published in