'Navigation of the Tigris and Euphrates by British Merchant-Vessels' [‎109r] (6/14)

•, V ' < ' s
to aiTiv^^t'TiVli n ^ h - "I'? Co ' Sr ' ver " stearaer ;s reported completed, and may be expected
Firmn n I v I p 3 !'". f 6 C0UrSe 0f a few da y s - Ire S ret ' 0 add that . i" spite of the
ofth^r^I V every opportunity to express himself adverse to the navigation
obstaplf^ in p Vesse sai | 1 t n o under a foreign flag and register, and that I anticipate
' r 1 0 +f e ^ l J en f e on P art W ^i c h niav give rise to protracted discussion."
WfJ o/I P y j I? a x S r Sa ^ 0r tran sniitted, on the 13th January, 1862, a fresh Vizirial
1^ 1/ (o the \ah of Bagdad, "repeating the directions already given to his
i T^ nC "' " 0 rpi 1 ? W 1 ri0 oos t a( ' 1 es in the way of British steamers navigating the Euphrates
n , ,g ! 1 '- 1 / if ^ an § ua S e i s important, as showing that the rights of the Company
weie cer ain y held to rest upon the arrangements of 1846, and that no limits were placed
upon tne number of steamers that might be employed on both rivers. The Vizirial letter
re enec to is dated 5th Mohurrum, 1279 (2nd July, 1862), and its terms are identical with
lose o the letter dated 3rd Rejeb, 1277 (15th January, 1861), I have not, therefore,
thought it necessary to inclose a copy.
14. 1 his further letter silenced for a time the opposition of the local authorities. But
eaily in 1664, when the intention of the Company to place a second steamer on the Tigris
in connection with the Indian mail service became known, Namyk Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. renewed his
objections. And it is in the correspondence which then ensued that the Ottoman autho
rities asserted for the first time that, under existing Firmans, only two British steamers
were permitted to navigate the Tigris, and the persistency with which they reiterated this
statement has apparently ended in securing its undisputed acceptance. They have, in
fact, induced people to regard the British Government and a local British firm as identical
entities, and to apply to the operations of that firm on the Tigris a Concession granted to
the British Government for the Euphrates ; and having shown that the terms of that
Concession allowed only two steamers, and that two steamers, the u City of London " and
the 44 Comet," were, as a matter of fact, already stationed on the Tigris, there was no other
conclusion possible but that the firm in question had no right to bring out what was
described as a third steamer. One statement in this argument, that the <£ Comet"
belonged to the Euphrates and Tigris Company, was immediately assailed, and it having
been proved that this vessel belonged to the Indian Government, the new steamer brought
out by the Company, the " Dijleh," was permitted to run. The Porte, however, gained
one important advantage from this discussion.
The little mis-statement about the " Comet" diverted attention from the substantia
issue, and gave them the opportunity to discard, without detection, the correspondence of^
18'16. Consequently, after that mis-statement had been set right, with the result that the
Company attained the immediate object in view—withdrawal of opposition to the " Dijleh
-—nobody thought it worth while to traverse the far more important assertion that the
Company's right to navigate the Tigris rested on a specific Hrman applicable to the
Company alone, and restricted to two steamers. And it is a remarkable fact that, from
the moment the controversy reached this stage, the Vizirial letters subsequently granted
carefully abstain from any allusion to the arrangement of 1846, which was so distinctly
confirmed bv the Vizirial letters of 1861 and 1862. _ .
15. Colonel Kemball having learned that Namyk Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. contemplated opposition to
the "Dijleh," drew his Excellency's attention to existing arrangements whereby British
merchant -steamers were at liberty to navigate the Tigris without any limit as to number,
and asked him to specifv his objection. , . , . . .
Namyk Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. replied that in the Vizirial letters preserved m his archives it was
clearlv laid down that the British Government was permitted to run only two steamers on
the Tigris, and to run them by turns, and as two steamers were now present, he was
unable to perceive on what grounds a third steamer could be claimed. xNamyk Pashas
views were firmly supported by his own Government, and the correspondence which
ensued was persistently^onducted by the Turks on the
admissible tmt tl ^re was no distin'ction between the Company's steamer the "City of
London and the Government steamer " Comet," and that no third steamer could be
allowed And the British authorities appear to have been so far convinced of the soundness
of the Turkish case that they seem to have agreed to withdraw the Comet,
01 . il r. .,the " Diileh. This stage of the controversy
Colonel Ken ^r in "a despatch from Her Majesty's Charg^ d'Afiaires dated the
"Wf m <• 'rftSiUSST' tfPSTA'SZSSSSt
Her Majesty s Embassy had asx s 'oDDOser ^ la navigation sur le Tigre du
nouv'ea^bateau^ vapenr que Me'ssrs. Lynch et Cie. feront venir de Londres dansle but de
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