Page 594 - Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed

ter for Trade and Railways, to Bonar Law, the British PM who didn't wish for

the negotiations to be suspended. This move angered Lord Curzon to no end.
He wrote a stern letter to the British diplomat Sir Eyre Crowe on January 11,

1923 and said that unless the talks with the Turkish representatives were end-
ed, he would withdraw from the negotiations about Mosul. 380

Later Curzon sent another letter with the same harsh tone on January 17,
1923 to Walter Hulme Long, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He said:
381

As a former colleague and friend of yours, can I ask you, how can you stick

your nose in matters that I'm dealing with here? The other day, Rickett, with
whom you are also acquainted, was here. Going behind my back and deceiv-

ing İsmet Pasha, he convinced him to send three representatives to London,
with whom I'm sure you are familiar with. 382 These representatives went to
London to offer oil concessions in exchange for the return of Mosul to Turks.

I, on the other hand, had made it clear that I was adamantly against the idea
and that I would do anything to defend Mosul and with the policy I pursued,
I aimed to make sure that Turks would have no dreams about those lands

not today, not in the future. Rickett must have convinced Turks that he had
a big influence on you and Bonar Law, and Turks thought that if they went
to London, they could somehow take back Mosul. Of course, I cannot know

how much you know about what's going on. The only thing I know is that you
wouldn't deliberately try to make my job more difficult and harm the inter-

ests of your country. Please stay away from this oil adventure. Many dis-
graceful acts are involved in this matter that you are unaware of and which
can stain an innocent person sooner or later. Rickett is most certainly an un-

reliable person. I know what he has been saying to Turks and what he has been
saying to Sir G. Armstrong. 383

The many disgraceful acts that Lord Curzon referred to were the dirty
tricks that the British deep state staged behind closed doors.

Another important detail was that British intelligence had illegally in-

tercepted the Turkish telegrams. With a special radio-telegram decoding sys-
tem that the British installed in Istanbul, they could intercept and decode the

telegrams sent by the Turkish government to Lausanne and sent them to
London before the Turkish delegation could get them in Lausanne. After they

Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed