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File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’ [‎12r] (23/630)

The record is made up of 1 item (315 folios). It was created in 1905-1911. 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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[2082
[This Doeument is the Property of Hia Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
ASIATIC
TURKEY AND ARABIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[June 22.]
Section 1,
[ 24230 ]
No. 1
Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Marline/,
(No. 235.)
(Telegraphic ) P.
' ALL oi Bussoran and Lynch s steamers.
y e have received information from Messrs. Lynch that permission has been
re rased by the vali for the ‘‘ Blosse Lynch,” one of the company’s steamers, to start for
agxlad instead of the M ulnar,” the latter being in need of repairs. The company
state that 10,000 tons of cargo are delayed at Bussorah as a result of this nniustifiable
action. J
Vali states that he cannot give the necessary permission without previously
receiving instructions from Constantinople. You should urge Porte to give the neces
sary instructions which should be sent to the vali via Fao, as the company state that the
I urkish overland telegraph is not working.

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Part 2 of the volume is comprised of copies of correspondence and other papers relating to the proposed merger of the Turkish-Government-operated Hamidieh Steamship Company and the British company, the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (also referred to as the Lynch Company, ETSNC). The item’s principal correspondents are: representatives of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (hereafter ETSNC, chiefly the Company Secretary, H W Maclean), the Director of the ETSNC (Henry Finnis Blosse Lynch); the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey); the Private Secretary to Sir Edward Grey (Louis Du Pan Mallet); the British Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul] (Sir Gerard Augustus Lowther); 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. for Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. (Captain John Gordon Lorimer).

The majority of the correspondence is dated 1909 to 1910, and focuses on the controversial nature of the proposed merger of the two steamship operators, which bore more of the character of a takeover by the British concern of its Turkish counterpart. While many Turkish commentators understood the prospect of a likely British monopoly of navigation rights on the Tigris and Euphrates in Irak [Iraq], the British Government feared having their commercial activities in Iraq diminished, possibly to the advantage of competing German commercial interests. The controversy, which acquired the sobriquet the ‘Affaire Lynch’ in the British press, precipitated a local popular uprising in Iraq, and in part led to the resignation of the Grand Vizier Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , who had supported the merger, in December 1909. The correspondence is thus split between the contractual negotiations over the navigation concession, and the political consequences of its controversy, including cuttings of articles published in the press in Britain ( The Times , The Morning Post ) and copies of articles published in Ottoman Turkey ( Tanin , Truth ).

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1 item (315 folios)
Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’ [‎12r] (23/630), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/88/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100031751616.0x000021> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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