'Memorandum respecting the Claim of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam-ship Company to use Barges on those Rivers as a matter of "right"' [‎97r] (2/18)

Printed for the use of the Foreign Office. May 5, 1881.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(4439.)
Mr. Gosclien, No. 13, Commercial;
Marcli 7,1881.
Memorandum respecting the Claim of the
Euphrates and Tigris Steam-ship Com
pany to use Barges on those Rivers as a
matter of " right!'
Lord Ponsonby, No. 1;
January 12, 1835.
Confidential Paper No. 2460.
THE following are the circumstances under
which British steam-vessels were first allowed to
navigate those rivers.
In 1834 Lord Ponsonby, then Her Majesty's
Ambassador at Constantinople, was directed to
obtain from the Porte permmion for English steamers
to navigate the River Euphrates for the purposes of
commerce ; and, after some opposition, the necessary
Firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). was granted for two steam-vessels to navigate
that river, under certain conditions.
The Euphrates and Tigris Company was not then
in existence.
Those conditions were thus described in the
Firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). of the 29th December, 1834. After stating
that the British Government had asked permission
for two steamers to be allowed to navigate the River
Euphrates, the Firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). said :—
C'est pourquoi nous avons permis et permettons
& deux batiments a vapeur de naviguer sur 1'Euphrate,
tour a tour, et cette navigation doit continuer autant
que, conformement a ce qui nous a etc represente,
elle sera utile aux deux Parties, et quil n'en resultera
aucun inconvenient; et c'est dans ce sens qu'une note
officielle a ete remise a I'Ambassade Britannique.
This Firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). , it will be observed, did not concede
,o British subjects generally, or to the Euphrates
and Tigris Company, the permanent and uncon
ditional right to navigate the river; but simply
oranted permission to the British Government to
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