File 3877/1912 Pt 4 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [‎90r] (121/176)

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seemed no legal objection to the issue of permits, and recommended that the licences
applied for by Mehmed Fakhri and Mehmed Reshad should be granted. It was evident,
when giving this decision, that the Council of State had overlooked the special rights
^Kvhich the Civil List or the Ministry of Finance possessed under three firmans in the
Bagdad province, nor had the orders issued to the provincial authorities by the Porte
relative to the non-issue of permits been taken into consideration. The Mining
Department consequently had to bring these facts to the notice of the Porte, with the
recommendation that they should be taken into consideration when the decision given
by the Council of State was discussed by the Council of Ministers. # . •
It has not been possible to trace the action taken with regard to the application
for Mendeli, but the information obtained seems to point to the fact that this
demand was set aside, like the others, principally on account of the rights of the Civil
The attitude of the Ministry of Mines with regard to all applications for
prospecting licences for oil in the Mosul and Bagdad vilayets since the transfer in
1908-9 of the concession of the Mesopotamian oilfields from the Civil List to the
Ministry of Finance has been guided by the fact that the firmans dated the 5th Shaban,.
1306 (5th April, 1889), the 5th Djemazi-el-ewel, 1316 (22nd September, 1898), both
confirmed in their tenour by a firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). of later date, i.e., the 18th Ramazan,^ 13-d
(17th December, 1902), granted to the Civil List in a definitive form the concession oi
“ all known oil wells, as also those which may be discovered,’’ and situated m the
vilayets of Mosul and Bagdad. This concession has passed into the hands ol the
Ministry of Finance and is now the property of that Department. Its validity and real
existence are incontestable, as the three firmans by which the concession was granted
have not been annulled by any law or subsequent firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). . Under these circumstances,
the clauses of the Mining Law, in so far as they have special reference to the conditions
of issue of “permis de recherches,” have become inoperative, as far as oil is concerned,
in the districts which are covered by the concession, and therefore no “permis de
recherches ” can possibly be granted. , . ^ t
Instances in which this view has been maintained are afforded in the case of IN e
Zadeh Tahsin Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , who held a prospecting licence for oil m the Bagdad ? r ^ lllce -
This licence was cancelled by a decision of the Council of State, owing pm p y
because of the existence of the Civil List concession. a* nnr i
In 1912 the Bagdad Railway Company applied to the authorities p
Bagdad for eight prospecting licences for oil (one of them was lor the Baba G g
t' 1 ® company statlfg the ^ - ^profit*, du
Actions given toTf iocallthorities in two despatches dated tl>e 23rd and
29th January, 1913, were to the effect that permits 1’vious to
concession of all oilfields in both provinces had been given to the Civil List pievio
the date of the signature of the Bagdad Railway Convention. • • t en cv in the
The Mining Department have in one case been guilty of great inconsistency
generil application of their view, for three permits were
and Nazim Beys by the Mosul authorities m June 1326 (1910) lor prospecting lor
hi the KerkuCdistrict of that province. These
period of one year, although no prospecting operations had been t
holders during the first legal term o£ declifing to grant them the
protested strongly against the action of the Ministry m aeci & lied with
required permits, when Raghib and Nazim Beys had ^ tL MiCry was
licences, but had obtained their renewal without any difficMt^The^toist^ was
therefore called upon by the company to cause the mime ^ in the 0vent of
permits applied for, or to cancel those held by Rag i reserved their right to
neither course being followed, the ed No subsequent action appears to
put in a claim tor compensation and foi dp • ^ N " lzim > s permits, but it is
have been taken by the Ministry wi i re g^ i 0(y i C aT course is open to the Department
at present difficult to conceive that any other logical comse ope <
than that of cancelling or withdrawing the^pernnts three firmans of the
Whilst the Ministry has, as fi has t . b ^, o Td Z vikfets of Mosul and Bagdad to all
Civil List concession as having e m i\ 7 ; ]] v m v ; ew 0 f the close negotiations
aanrsistfwar*-. -
£OV ° It has 1 only b^u possible to ascertain the dates of three stringent orders transmitted
[2136 iLl] ■ ® 2