On Monday in the Commons there was a general discussion
on foreign affairs. Sir Mark Sykes foresaw that the Admiralty oil scheme in Persia might end in the occupation of Persia and the break-up of Turkey. Then Great Britain might lie "like a stranded whale on a mndbank, with a German hippopotamus on one side and a Russian rhinoceros charging down from a hill in front." Sir Edward Grey emphatically stated that the happy settlement of the Panama Tolls question was due to the determination of President Wilson not to flinch from a strictly fair interpretation of Treaties. It was an entire mistake to suppose that there had been any bargaining. As to Persia, he did not desire to increase our obligations there or anywhere else, but there was nowhere in the British Empire where enough oil could be obtained, and there was nowhere outside the Empire where it could be obtained with less danger of complications than in Persia. The Government had decided to advance 40,000 to Persia, 225,000 of which was to come from India. The Baghdad Railway was to stop at Basra, and in return for this agreement with Germany and Turkey the Government would consent to a four per cent, increase of the Turkish Customs. The status gun in the Persian Gulf would thus be preserved.
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