'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations' [‎114v] (234/540)

In view of the history and wording of article 2 of the Treaty of Erzeroum
(1847), we consider that the Turkish claim to the ownership of the whole water
way is so strong that it cannot successfully be disputed, especially before The Hague
Tribunal; we are further of opinion that no practical advantage would be se
cured by Persian representation.
The draft is accordingly based on the assumption that the proposed riverain
commission will be nominally Turkish and not international. But while invest
ing the commission with a Turkish faqade, we have sought to further the general
interests of navigation by placing the police control and supervision of the techni
cal work in the hands of a commission, which is independent of the local authorities
and only responsible to the Central Government, and thereby to ensure that the
administration of the river shall be impartial and effective. We have also, by
the wording of article 16 of the convention, sought to protect the property of the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company on the left bank of the river.
As the quarantine arrangements at Basrah are at present under the control
of the Board of Health at Constantinople, it has not appeared advisable, or in
deed possible, to give the riverain commission any control of quarantine in the
Shatt-el-Arab.
As regards the levy of dues, it is not impossible that it may be objected to
by other Powers as an infringement of their rights under the Capitulations, and
neither the commission nor the Turkish'Government has the power to enforce
payment. But in so far as such dues will be in respect of pilotage and wharf
accommodation, they will be levied in return for services which can be withheld
if they are not paid, and any difficulty might be avoided, or at least mitigated,
by a consolidated due which could be pitched sufficiently high to cover all costs
but in which the various items were not differentiated.
Under article 23 of the convention of March 1903, the Bagdad Railway
Company held certain rights in regard to the port of Basrah, which have devolved
under the agreement of 1911 upon the proposed new Turkish Company. These
are provided for in clause 6 (c) of the draft convention, and the relations of the
riverain commission to this company will be a matter for negotiation when the
company is formed.
By handing over to the commission, as proposed in article 6 (g), the lights and
buoys m the approaches to the river, His Majesty's Government will be saved the
cost of their maintenance, which will be a substantial sum.
We have added, at the conclusion of the draft convention, an article specifv-
mg twenty years as the period of its duration. We have thought that this would
be better than attempting to render the convention permanent or indefinite in
its duration. It will be impossible for the commission to carry out any substantial
works for the improvement of the river unless it is certain to last for a reasonablv
long period, and, on the other hand, if a definite period of years is specified as the
duratKm of the convention, it will be easier to withstand attempts on the part of
the Sublime Porte to re-open thh whole matter and negotiate a new convention.
We think it may be found desirable that the period for which the increased
customs are to be levied should be limited to the same number of years.
We have, etc.,
EDMOND J. W. SLADE.
A, HIETZEL.
C. J. B. HUEST.
ALWYN PAEKEE.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Draft Convention for theestahlishmmt of
The Government of His Britannic Majesty and the Government of His
Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey, being desmous, on account of the magnitude
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