Diabolically clever, if true. (I didn't know that).
And, Churchill marked up the MidEast and produced similar results because he was in a hurry. I remember reading that after WW I, he carved up the Ottoman empire's territory on a map in an afternoon.
That's what happened to the Kurds. They were told they'd get their own country, Kurdistan, but their hoped-for land got split between Turkey and Iraq.
I’m not sure if this is a universally accepted fact (the intention, at least), but I know many educated people who subscribe to the idea.