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File 3877/1912 Pt 4 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [‎43v] (28/176)

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The record is made up of 1 part (87 folios). It was created in 22 Apr 1914-15 Sep 1914. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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We understand that the decisions of the Council of State are final in reference to
mining matters, and do not need the confirmation of the Cabinet, and that under
specific articles of the Mining Code it is the competent authority to decide all mining
differences. Further, that its decisions in reference to such matters have practically
always been accepted and executed during the last ten years; in fact, it has been the
usual practice for its decisions to be sent direct from the Council of State to the ^
Ministry of Mines without being submitted to the Cabinet.
It is common knowledge that negotiations have been proceeding for some time
between the Foreign Office and Hakki Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , representing the Porte, with a view to
these particular concessions being given to the Turkish Petroleum Company, and strong
diplomatic pressure has been put upon Turkey to achieve this end.
Anyone reading your letter would imagine that it had been the function of the
Foreign Office to stand by and see fair play while the various claimants to the
concessions in question fought it out with the Turkish Government; whereas, in fact
the Foreign Office has been for months putting pressure on the Turks to give these
concessions to the D’Arcy group. In this respect you must permit us to remark that
your letter scarcely conveys a correct impression of the attitude of the Secretary of
State, or of the activity or otherwise of the Foreign Office.
The position of the Foreign Office is admitted by the paragraph of your letter, in
which you say that it is impossible for the Secretary of State to adopt any other
attitude, because there are other claimants to rights in the oil fields of Mosou] and
Bagdad whose claims depend upon the validity of the concession of the Civil List, and you
add that “ these parties are equally entitled to the support of the Secretary of State.”
The truth is that the Foreign Office has committed itself to support the Turkish
Petroleum Company, and this company is receiving the support of the Foreign Office
to the exclusion of all other claimants, and now that the Council of State has given a
decision adverse to their legal pretensions, pressure is being put upon the Porte by the
Foreign Office to prevent that decision being rendered efiective.
If these are not the facts, no doubt you will contradict them. If they are the
facts, we can only say that Mr. Silley is being very badly treated. The matter appears
to us to be of such importance that we must reserve the right to make the whole
correspondence public.
We are, &c.
TBEHERNE, HIGGINS, and Co.
Mi
9
Qnd
Seci
Con
Unc
Seci

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Content

Correspondence and papers relating to claims for exploratory oil licenses in Ottoman Turkey (including the vilayets of Baghdad, Mosul and Basra in Mesopotamia [Iraq], and Syria and Nejd). Principal correspondents include: the solicitors Treherne, Higgins and Company, who represent the oil explorer Roland H Silley; representatives of the Central Mining and Investment Corporation Limited (L Reynolds; Louis Julius Reyersbach); Foreign Office (FO) officials (Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe; Sir Louis Du Pan Mallet).

  • correspondence concerning Silley’s claims (competing with those made by the D’Arcy Group and Anglo-Persian Oil Company) over mining rights in the Mesopotamian vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad, an historical précis of which can be found in a letter dated 14 May 1914 from Treherne, Higgins & Company to the Foreign Office (ff 111-112);
  • correspondence concerning Silley’s attempts to secure oil licenses in Nejd, Silley’s efforts to contact the prospective Vali of Nejd, Bin Saud (‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd), and discussion amongst FO officials over the prospects of the Turkish Petroleum Company (in large part financed by Deutsche Bank and the Dutch Anglo-Saxon Oil Company) having a presence in Arabia and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ;
  • a note, written by Sulaiman Nassif, enclosed with a letter dated 27 April 1914, on petroleum prospecting concession licenses in Syria (f 105).
Extent and format
1 part (87 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 3877/1912 Pt 4 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [‎43v] (28/176), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/302/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100028929398.0x000062> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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