"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٦‎٣] (١٢٦٢/٩٨٠)

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in March 1887 the Turkish Government^ perhaps as having achieved
what was their real purpose at the time^ closed their own line also. In 1889,
however, the Turus re-opened the post route by Damascus and Bairut,
a dromedary thereafter leaving Baghdad every Thursday; and in M ay
1906 Aleppo was substituted for Damascus as the principal Syrian station.
The courier on this line is occasionally robbed, or dies of intense cold or.
heat, by the way; but the mail, in such cases, is generally recovered after
a time : and this post is now habitually used by the mercantile community
at Baghdad. A Tatar post for Constantinople via Musal and Diyarbakr
also leaves Baghdad every Monday.
We come now to a series of persistent endeavours, made by the Porte Attempt hj
between 1878 and 1887, to oust the Indian Post Office from Turkish the Turkish
t - n Government
. i n i n p obtain the
These begna at the International Postal Conterence held at rans m abolition of
1878, where the Ottoman delegates urged the suppression of all foreign the Indian
post offices in the Turkish dominions ; the proposal was one which affected post offices,
Great Britain, France, Oermany, Austria and Italy; and the Conference
declined to entertain it on the ground that it involved diplomatic consi- ^^ihoent 6
derations and therefore lay beyond their scope. By adhering to the the i r m .j.
Paris Postal Convention of 1878 Turkey succeeded in acquiring a more vileges, 1878*
respectable, but entirely undeserved international status in postal matters. 1905.
In 1881 the latent antipathy of the Turks to the Indian Post Office 1881-82.
was translated into action and showed itself in official competition with
the British Baghdad-Damascus service, to which allusion has already
been made, and in a small matter connected with the delivery of parcels
at Baghdad. In the same year the abolition of the British desert post
was requested by the Porte, both at Baghdad and through the British
Ambassador at Constantinople; but the demand was successfully resisted.
In 1882 the Ottoman Minister for Foreign Affairs recurred to the
subject and pressed for the abolition not only of the desert post but also
of the Indian post offices at Baghdad and Basrah; the demand was
however withdrawn for the time, and a promise was even given that it
would not be urged.
In 1883 the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs attempted to 1883.
renew the discussion on the subject of the British desert post, but the
British Embassy took their stand on the promise given in the previous
year and the matter dropped. The Turks about the same time resorted
to local obstruction and made a half-hearted attempt, which was not
successful, to detain at Qurnah the Euphrates and Tigris Company's
steamer " Khalifah " proceeding with mails from Basrah to Baghdad ;
a crisis and negotiations followed, during which H.M.S. "Woodlark"
was kept at Basrah in readiness for emergencies. On the 20th of August
1883, while those negotiations were still pending the Wali of Baghdad
demanded the abolition of the town office and letter box maintained by
the Indian Post Office at Basrah, both of which have already mentioned
in the history of the Basrah post office; and he caused a notice to be
posted up, forbidding the use of any but Turkish post offices and ordering
the exclusive use of Turkish stamps under penalty of a fine of one to five
Lirahs. The penalty was in one or two instances actually enforced, and
some consternation was caused among the merchants and. Turkish officials