Page:France and the Levant peace conference 1920.djvu/28

16 In the misfortunes of the Ottoman Empire France saw an opportunity of restoring French influence in the Levant. To aid Mehemet Ali to obtain hereditary possession of Syria as well as Egypt was to secure French predominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. The plan was ingenious; but France had reckoned without Great Britain. The French Ambassador in London was summoned to the Foreign Office and informed that the Cabinet took a grave view of the crisis.

Reason, as understood by the Foreign Secretary, demanded that Egypt should be preserved to Mehemet Ali and his heirs, but that Syria should remain in the possession of the Sultan.

This conversation occurred shortly before the battle of Nisib and the death of Mahmud; but the Turkish débâcle failed to move Palmerston from his position. In his subsequent interview with the French Ambassador he repeated that the interest of both France and England was to restore the Turkish Empire to a condition which would involve the least risk of foreign intervention.

If Syria were thus lopped off, he added, Russia would try to seize the European provinces of Turkey, which she had long coveted, and the Powers would have no title to protest. In a word Russia and France would dominate the Turkish Empire.