'File 53/6 (D 2) Koweit [Kuwait] Affairs, 1898-1899' [‎138r] (272/554)

[This Dociiment is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.]
ASIA. [January 4.]
CONFIDENTIAL. Section l
No. 1.
Messrs. Williams, Meyers, and Co. to Foreign Office.—{Received January 4.)
6, Tokenhouse Yard, and Stock Exchange, London,
Dear Sir, January 4, 1899.
REFERRING to the conversation wliicli our Mr. Meyers had the honour to
have with you yesterday, we are pleased to forward you Mr. Pears' letter re Trade*,
am, should feel obliged if you would kindly return it to us after having placed it before
Lord Salisbury for perusal.
With regard to the point touched by you as to whether, in the event of his .
Concession being obtained, our contract with Count Kapnist-would be found to be
sufficiently binding to safeguard us against any attempt that might be made to
transfer the Concession to other parties not approved of by Her Majesty's Govern
ment or ourselves, we take the liberty to quote from a confidential Report handed to
us a few ago, on his return from Constantinople, by a gentleman in our office, who
had been watching our interests out there. He says :—
" Mr. Pears sent word to us asking how matters were progressing, and on our
paying him a visit, he informed us that Sir Nicholas O'Conor had called on him soon
after Mr. Meyers' departure to make inquiries about our matter, and that since he had
twice sent Mr. Weakley, the Embassy's Commercial Attache, on the same mission.
Pears told us that Sir Nicholas was particularly concerned to know whether, in the
case of this Concession being granted by the Sultan to Count Kapnist, our contract
with the latter was binding enough to prevent him from transferring the Concession
to any body not suitable to us. We meant to set his Excellency's mind at rest on that
point, and, after an interview with Count Kapnist, got him to write a letter to
E. Rechnitzer, declaring himself to be acting in this matter merely as E. Rechnitzer's
and his financial group's agent, and binding himself to have E. Rechnitzer's name
inserted in the Convention, besides his own, as part concessionnaire. This letter was
.signed by Count Kapnist at Mr. Pears' office, in the latter's presence, and officially
acknowledged receipt of by E. Rechnitzer in a return letter to the Count. Further-
mo^r Count Kapnist was made to write a letter to Mahmoud Djellalledin Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the
Minister of Public Works, after the latter had been communicated with, practically
repeating what had been stated in the Count's letter to E. Rechnitzer, and duly
testified copies of these letters having been prepared by Mr. Pears, they were taken
up to the Embassy and handed to Sir Nicholas O'Conor/'
We may add that we have known Mr. Rechnitzer for a long time, and that he is
the gentleman who orignially brought this Concession business to us.
We have &c.
(Signed) WILLIAMS, MEYERS, and Co.
In closure 1 in No. 1.
Mr. E. Pears to Messrs. Williams, Meyers, and Co.
Dear Sirs, 10, Rue Mertebany, Constantinople, December 1898.
HEREWITH I inclose copy, certified by me, of the letter from the Ministry of
Public Works. I congratulate you on obtaining it. I confess, as I told your
Mr. Meyers when he was here, that I doubted very much whether your representatives
would have sufficient influence to obtain the document, and I say even that I am
surprised at their success. At the same time, as I informed your Mr. Meyers, such a
document does not give any legal right to obtain the Concession which has been asked
for in Count Kapnist's name.
* Also his certiiied copy of the Irade (foi perusal and return).
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