1915 | The De Bunsen Committee

Mavi Boncuk | The De Bunsen Committee was a committee established in 1915 by British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, headed by Maurice De Bunsen[1], to determine British wartime policy toward the Ottoman Empire. The report of the De Bunsen committee established the foundation for British policy in the Middle East.

The committee was established in response to a French initiative, to consider the nature of British objectives in Turkey and Asia in the event of a successful conclusion of the war. The committee's report provided the guidelines for negotiations with France, Italy, and Russia regarding the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.

The De Bunsen committee considered four possible solutions : partition, leaving only a small Ottoman state in Anatolia; preservation subject to Great Power control zones of political and commercial influence; preservation as an independent state in Asia; creation of a decentralised, federal Ottoman state in Asia. The Committee's report, titled "British war aims in Ottoman Asia" was issued on 30 June 1915,and recommended the last option as the best solution for meeting the British Empire's defence needs

[1] Bunsen, Sir Maurice William Ernest de, first baronet (1852–1932), diplomatist
Maurice De Bunsen entered the diplomatic service in 1877 and helped settle the dispute between France and Spain over Morocco in 1911 and 1912. In 1915, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith appointed him head of a committee to determine British wartime policy toward the Ottoman Empire in Asia. The resulting report of the De Bunsen committee established the foundation for British policy in the Middle East.
Bibliography : Hurewitz, J. C., trans. and ed. The Middle East and NorthAfrica in World Politics, 2d edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975.

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