File 3877/1912 Pt 4 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [‎70r] (81/176)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Govp.rnmpn* 1
TURKEY.
1
-■ /.
T.
[June 24. ]
> CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
[28442]
N
Messrs. Treherne, Higgins and Co. to Foreign Office.—(Received June 24.)
Sir ’ c TT T m 7 • Bloomshur y Square, London, June 23, IQU.
Mr. oILLLi : Mesopotamia oil rights.
„ , a , re ,? ow instructed to write to you further with reference to your letter to us
of tliG 20th May.
You take exception to our saying in our letter on the 13th May that the Secretary
of State is supporting not only British pretensions which are not in accordance with
the mining laws of Turkey, but German and Dutch interests as well. This statement
we made for the following reasons :—
1 . The Turkish Petroleum Company is a company whose shares are chiefly held
by the iNational Bank of Turkey, the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company, and the
Deutsche Bank. The Deutsche Bank is a German institution ^controlled by
Germans, and the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company, we understand, is controlled by
Dutch. ‘ ^
2. The claims of the Turkish Petroleum Company to the concessions in the
provinces of Mosul and Bagdad are not in accordance with the mining laws of
Turkey.
The position as stated in paragraphs 1 and 2 is unaltered, and we must adhere to
the statement contained in our letter of the 13th May on this point.
We must also take exception to your statement that tbe clauses in the mining
law as regards licences are inoperative so far as oil is concerned in the provinces of
Mosul and Bagdad. The fact remains that the Mining Department has granted rights
to Mr. Silley and those associated with him in the areas in question.
Mr. Silley’s appeal to the Turkish authorities to complete the granting of the
licences, &c., in connection with these claims has been delayed, according to the
information which the Turkish authorities themselves have given Mr. Silley, not
because they are invalid, but because the British Embassy and the Foreign Office are
trying to prevent their carrying out their own mining law.
We gather from your letter that the Foreign Office relies on the Imperial firmans
issued in 1889, 1898, and 1902, whereby the Civil List was granted the concession of
all the known oil wells in the provinces in question. These concessions were
transferred from the Civil List to the Ministry of Finance, and have now been handed
over to the Turkish Petroleum Company.
We gather that it is because you are of opinion that these concessions are
legally valid that the Foreign Office has given its support to the lurkish Petroleum
Company and is putting pressure on the Turkish Government to grant them the
concessions. Are we to infer that the Foreign Office, if satisfied that these pretensions
were not legal, would cease to support the Turkish Petroleum Company and support
those whose claims were valid claims ?
Mr. Silley is not asking preferential treatment from the British Government, but
only wants the Turkish Government to carry out and execute their own mining laws,
and that these shall be complied with. It appears to us that all British subjects
have an equal right to the assistance of His Majesty’s Government in supporting their
legal claims vis-d-vis foreign Governments, and that such support should be granted
without favour and without selecting particular persons or bodies for political or other
reasons. . . f
If Mr. Silley’s claims are legal, and we assert that they are, then the claims ot
the Turkish Petroleum Company cannot be valid, and enforcement of the mining
laws of Turkey will place this question beyond dispute.
It is obvious that if Mr. Silley as an Englishman cannot count on the assistance
of his own Government, he will be forced into the hmnls of American, Erencji, and
[2165 aa —1]