Mss Eur F112/257

The file comprises typescript, printed and manuscript memoranda, dated 1918 and 1920 by: Edwin Samuel Montagu, Secretary of State for India; Arthur James Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (up to October 1919); Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, War Office; and Foreign Office officials as instructed by Lord Curzon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (from October 1919).

The memoranda cover the different views expressed by the Foreign Office, India Office and War Office, on the conduct of the War in the East and British policy in the Middle East, in particular the following:

• The effectiveness of policy being conducted by the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet
• The roles of the Government of India and the India Office, and the Foreign Office, in that region, notably in Arabia, Persia [Iran] and Mesopotamia [Iraq]
• Whether a separate department should be established by the Foreign Office and War Office to deal with Middle Eastern affairs
• Criticism by the Eastern Committee, and the Foreign Office and Lord Curzon, of the administration of Mesopotamia by Arnold Talbot Wilson, Acting Civil Commissioner, notably for being too 'militaristic', anti-democratic, insufficiently focused on civil administration, and antagonistic to Arab nationalism.

Several of the memoranda written in 1918 are responses by the Foreign Office and the War Office to Montagu's memorandum entitled 'War Cabinet. Eastern Committee. The War in the East', 5 July 1918 (ff 10-11), in which Montagu expresses doubts about the Eastern Committee's conduct of war policy in the Middle East. The memoranda written in 1920 document the Foreign Office's views on the 'Wilsonian policy being pursued in Mesopotamia' (ff 24-36).