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
