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File 3877/1912 Pt 4 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [‎104r] (149/176)

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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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[This Document is the Pro perty^ His Britannic Maj esty’s Government.]
a
|o4
TURKEY.
^ CONFIDENTIAL.
[May 20 .]
Section 2.
[22466]
No. 1 .
jcLjaM ^ f
Foreign Office to Messrs. Treherne, Higgins and Co.
(Confidential.)
Gentlemen, Foreign Office, May 20, 1914.
^ I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 13th instant regarding the claims of your client, Mr. Silley, in respect of certain
oilfields in Turkey.
In this letter you set forth the nature of Mr. Silley’s claims; you represent that
the legality of those claims has, you understand, been recognised by this Department
and His Majesty’s Ambassador at Constantinople ; and you contend 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.”
Mr. Silley’s letter of the 17th January last to this Department is the document to
which you refer for a statement of his claims. It indicates that he is interested in
six petroleum claims in the provinces of Mosul and Bagdad, and in two in the province
of Basra, and one in Nejd. As regards the first named, His Majesty’s Ambassador
reports that five of the claims rest merely on petitions presented by (not licences
granted to) Ottoman subjects; as regards the remaining claims, they are based upon
simila^ documents in which the name of Mr. Silley appears as one of the applicants.
In respect of the five claims in which Mr. Silley has only an indirect interest, Sir E.
Grey does not consider he possesses any valid claim as against the Ottoman Government
nor would he be prepared to support a claim of this nature by an Ottoman subject
against his own Government merely because a British subject had purported to
acquire an interest in that claim ; as regards both categories of claims no licences
have been granted, but petitions have only been presented. Mr. Silley’s claims are
thus not based on licences, which are negotiable documents, but on petitions for
licences, and, certainly in regard to those claims which relate to areas in Mosul and
Bagdad, there appear to be no grounds for demanding compensation from the Ottoman
Government owing to their failure to issue licences.
The attitude of the Ottoman Mining Department with regard to all applications
for licences in the provinces of Bagdad and Mosul has been governed by the fact that
Imperial firmans issued in 1889,1898, and 1902 granted to the Civil List in a definitive
form the concession of all known oil wells, as well as those which might subsequently
be discovered, in the provinces in question. This conceasion has not, as your client
erroneously assumes, been cancelled; it was transferred from the Civil List to the
Ministry of Finance ; it is still valid and existent; and the firmans by which it 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’). . In these circum
stances the clauses of the mining law as regards licences are inoperative as far as oil is
concerned in regard to these two provinces, and the Mining Department cannot
lawfully issue licences for prospecting for oil in areas where the Ministry of Finance
has real proprietary rights. The investigations made by His Majesty s Ambassador
show that the applications of Mr. Silley’s associates have been set aside for this reason,
which alone, in the opinion of Sir E. Grey, would suffice to rule out any claim for
compensation. . . . , ,
I am to state that you are under a grave misapprehension in assuming that the
legality of Mr. Silley’s claims was admitted by this Department On the contrary, I
am to draw your special attention to the words “in the opinion of his London solicitors,
which were inserted by Mr. Parker in the statement you submitted to hirn for revision,
and which forms the enclosure in your letter of the 14th April; and I ani further
to draw your attention to the last sentence of that statement: But His Majesty s
Government can express no opinion as to the value of Mr. Silley s claims, wine i vv as
’‘also inserted by Mr. Parker. . , ,, ,
In view of the above considerations, Sir E. Grey is compelled o o serve a
the assertion that he is supporting pretensions which are not legal is devoid ot
foundation.
[2136 u—2]

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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’ [‎104r] (149/176), 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_100028929399.0x000013> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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