890E.01/9–2244
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Murray)
Mr. Michael Wright41 of the British Embassy called at my request to discuss with Mr. Alling and me the present political situation in Syria and Lebanon.
I informed Mr. Wright that we had received a number of telegrams from our representative in Beirut indicating that General Spears, the British Minister, was pressing the Syrian and Lebanese Governments [Page 785] to enter into negotiations with the French authorities for treaties of alliance establishing a special and privileged position for France in those countries. I remarked that in as much as the British frequently in situations of this kind have requested us to support the position taken by their representative on the ground, we would appreciate prompt and full information as to the policy of the British Government respecting such special treaty relationship between France and the two Levant states of Syria and Lebanon.
Referring to the proclaimed intention of the French authorities to exact such a treaty from the Syrians and Lebanese, I remarked that we were not aware of the precise grounds on which the French were in a position to make such a demand. It was not clear that the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon gave France any legal right to force treaties of this kind on the two states in question as a quid pro quo for the termination of France’s mandatory position there.
Taking as an example the earlier British position in Iraq during the time that it was a British mandate, I pointed out that while it was true that the British did in fact negotiate with the Iraqis the treaty of alliance42 which came into effect after the termination of the mandate, I was not aware that the British had ever taken the position that the Iraqis were in fact obligated to enter into any such treaty with them. Was it not a case of the British so handling their relations with the Iraqis that the latter felt it would be in their interest to enter into a treaty of alliance with the British?
Since the French have allowed their relations with the Syrians and Lebanese to deteriorate to such a degree that the treaty of alliance could only be negotiated under pressure, I expressed the view to Mr. Wright that we for our part would hesitate to consider joining with the British in bringing any such pressure on the Governments of the two Levant states. Furthermore, I asked Mr. Wright whether he did not agree that in such treaties of alliance as Great Britain had with Iraq and Egypt,43 not to mention those with the Sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf,44 there had been a very important inducement which Great Britain was in a position to extend to those states, namely a guarantee of protection against all acts of aggression, wherever arising. France unfortunately herself a defeated power was hardly in a position to offer any such guarantees to the fledgling states of Syria [Page 786] and Lebanon and the treaties of alliance imposed by France, therefore, would be without any appropriate quid pro quo on her part in return for the “preeminent and privileged position” which she has claimed in that area and in which the British appear to have acquiesced.
Mr. Wright would recall that we had made it clear from the beginning that we would not recognize any such superior position of France in the states of Syria and Lebanon, when those states became independent, since, as he would agree, France had no such position there even as a mandatory power.
Mr. Wright said he was not familiar with his Government’s position on this question but that he would immediately communicate with the Foreign Office and request a statement of British policy in the matter.
- Counselor of the British Embassy.↩
- Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of Alliance, signed at Baghdad, June 30, 1930, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cxxxii, p. 363; or British Cmd. 3797, Iraq No. 15: Treaty of Alliance Between His Majesty in Respect of the United Kingdom and His Majesty the King of Iraq With an Exchange of Notes, Baghdad, 30th June, 1930. ↩
- Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, signed at London, August 26, 1936, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. clxxiii, p. 401; or British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cxl, p. 179.↩
- Sir Charles U. Aitchison, A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads …, vol. x, passim. ↩