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File 3877/1912 Pt 4 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [‎55r] (51/176)

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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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CONFIDENTIAL.
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Sir Edward Grey to Sir L. Mallet (Constantinople).
(No 297.) R. Foreign Office, July 7, 1914, 3T5 p.m.
YOUR telegram No. 405 of 3rd July: Mesopotamian oil concession.
It may be necessary for Turkish Petroleum Company to constitute a subsidiary
Ottoman company to work Mesopotamian concession, but, as you say in your telegram
No. 393 of 30th June, these matters should be conducted by Company’s representatives.
Question of presence of Turkish director, though there may be means of providing for
this, is not a minor point, in view of protracted negotiations between the several parties
respecting distribution of shares and representation on the board, which preceded the
agreement reached in London on 19th March last. It might have the effect of depriving
the British element of control, and, though question must be settled by the Company
with the Ottoman Government, I hesitate to abandon lever of monopolies agreement
until it has been settled. At the same time I have no wish or intention to convey any
threat to the Grand Vizier. As to payment of indemnity to third parties, the Company
have always appreciated that they would have to compensate in some form or other
(probably in the same way as the Anglo-Persian Company did in Persia) the local
inhabitants who have derived profit from the wells in the past. As to other claimants,
such as those indicated in the second paragraph of your Excellency’s telegram
No. 405, if the Ministry of Finance would furnish a list oft hem, and the Ottoman
Government would give an assurance that the list was complete and that they considered
other claimants, who plead under the Mining Law, were without any valid title, it
might be possible to induce Turkish Petroleum Company to indemnify the Ottoman
Government. But what Company particularly object to is an unlimited liability, which
has been rendered still more formidable by the decision of the Council of State on
4 th June (a decision which, according to Silley, merely confirmed one given two
years before), and by the unfortunate indiscretion by which it has become generally
known. . .
As to Silley, whilst I am mindful of the arguments contained m foreign Office
letter of 20 th May to his solicitors, an answer must now be sent to the reply which
that letter evoked, and I should therefore be glad to receive a detailed iepl\ to the last
paragraph of my telegram No. 292 of 2 nd July, and to learn what is the exact position
of the Council of State. Silley maintains that the decision corresponds to a judgment
of the House of Lords. A copy of latest correspondence with his solicitors will reach
you by post.
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[705-130]
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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’ [‎55r] (51/176), 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_100028929398.0x000079> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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