Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/350

 In addition to disputing the territorial readjustments contemplated by the Angora Treaty, the British Government challenged the transfer to French capitalists of the former German concession for the Bozanti-Nisibin sections of the Bagdad Railway. Lord Curzon pointed out that Great Britain would not recognize the Franco-Turkish treaty as overriding the Treaty of Sèvres, "whereby Turkey was herself to liquidate the whole Bagdad Railway on the demand of the principal Allies"; neither would the British Government assent to the award to France of "a large portion of the railway without regard to the claims of her other allies upon a concern which both under the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Sèvres is the Allies' common asset."[26]

"Apart from the immediate and premature advantage gained by France by this transfer of a large portion of the Bagdad line to a French company in advance—and therefore possibly to the prejudice—of the reciprocal allied arrangements contemplated by Article 294 of the Treaty of Sèvres and Article 4 of the Tripartite Agreement, it is necessary to point out that these stretches of the railway which were previously in Syria, but are now surrendered to Turkey, although placed in the French zone of economic interest, ought naturally to be divided among the Allies in accordance with the above mentioned treaties The transfer to a French company of that part of the railway which still remains in Syria does not in itself fulfil the provisions of the Treaty of Sèvres, which stipulates for liquidation by the mandatary and the assignment of the proceeds to the Financial Commission as an allied asset."

The correspondence was concluded by Lord Curzon with emphatic statements that "when peace is finally concluded the different agreements which have been negotiated up to date, including the Angora Agreement, will require to be adjusted with a view to taking their place in a general settlement"; that he was obliged "explicitly to reserve the attitude of His Majesty's Government with regard to the Angora Agreement"; and that there must