File 1421/1908 Pt 3 'Persia: oil; negotiations between the Shaikh of Mohammerah and the Anglo-Persian Oil Co.' [‎279r] (123/338)

3. I judged it necessary to explain the position of the Shaikh in some
detail to the Company, in order to put the case clearly before them, but I have,
I trust, said no more than was necessary for this purpose. I did not think it
desirable at this stage to refer to the clause in the first farman (page 6, lines
18-20 of print), which provides that should any of the lands be ever required
for the Government, they should pay a reasonable price to the Sardar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. Arfa’
and then take possession thereof.” This clause (which does not appear in the
second farman) will be useful when negotiating with the Shaikh.
4. I may also draw attention to the fact, perhaps without significance, that
the second farman mentions Deh Mulla, Hindian, and the lands east of the
Karun, but the covering letter only mentions “ two places.”
5. Unforeseen delays have occurred in obtaining the plant for the Ahwaz
works, and the question is not, therefore, a matter of immediate urgency, as was
at first represented.
6. As it seems possible that references may be made to His Majesty’s Le
gation from His Majesty’s Foreign Office in regard to this matter, I am sending
a copy of this letter with all its enclosures to His Majesty’s Minister, Tehran.
Dated the 25 th August 1910 .
From—The Managing Agents of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Limited,
To—His Majesty's Consul for Arabistan.
* We have the honour to place before you for your information the following
extract from a letter received by us from our Managing Director:—
“ You have asked by wire this week if you may promise the Shaikh 3 per
cent in ordinary shares of any Company formed to work oil at Ahwaz. I have
not had the opportunity of bringing the matter before my Board, but in the
meantime 1 may prognosticate that the answer will be certainly not. We do not
want to incur the obligation or forming another Company, nor would the percentage
basis be workable in any other way.”
It is pointed out to us that the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. is
fully aware of the point that the Shaikh possesses no mineral rights, and
though the Company will give an undertaking to pay for the surface value of the
land taken up in the same way as in the Bakhtiari country, there is no intention
to pay anything further. We are advised that, if any difficulties or obstructions
are placed in the way of our drilling at Ahwaz, the Company will, through the
British Minister at Tehran, call upon the Persian Government to put us in
possession under the terms of the concession, and, if they fail to do so, to claim
damages.
The Company’s intention is to firmly resist any further attempt at extortion
similar to that which we have been subjected to in the case of the Bakhtiaris,
and to henceforth deal, as far as possible, strictly in the lines of the terms of the
concession. Little concessions may occasionally have to be made in order to
secure and maintain the goodwill of the Shaikh and others, but in regard to the
Shaikh, the Company considers it has already gone a long way in this respect.
No. 903 , dated 26 th August 1910 .
From—His Majesty’s Consul for Arabistan,
To—The Managing Agents, Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Limited.
In reply to your letter of the 25th instant in regard to your proposal to bore
at Ahwaz.
Before taking the matter further, I should like to be informed whether, when
your Directors wrote the letter of which you are good enough to give me extracts,
they had before them the undertaking given verbally to the Shaikh by your
Mr. Lloyd last year, and which I understood at the time to indicate that the
Company were prepared to treat with him on much the same basis as the
Bakhtiari, quite independently of the surface rights question.