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File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’ [‎16r] (31/630)

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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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
ASIATIC TURKEY AND ARABIA.
srpini
r 3 I O' C
[September 1.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 2.
[33284]
No. 1,
Sir Edward Grey to Sir G. Lowther.
^ (u^ 0 *) Foreign Office, September 1, 1911.
WITH reference to Mr. Marling’s despatch No. 528 of the 25th July respecting
Messrs. Lynch’s fourth steamer, I transmit herewith to your Excellency copy of a letter
received from the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company relative to the
permission for their steamers to tow a second barge, 0 and to the reluctance of the Vali
of Bussorah to carrying out the telegraphic instructions said to have been sent by the
Turkish Minister of Public Works to the Vali of Bagdad according the company
permission to use their reserve steamer.
I request that your Excellency will remind the Turkish Government of the aide-
memoire which Mr. Marling communicated to Rifaat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. on the 25th ultimo on the
subject of the continuation of the permission granted to Messrs. Lynch to tow a second
barge, and that yon will press for a favourable reply.
As regards the question of the reserve steamer, in view of the considerations
advanced in the fifth paragraph of Mr. Marling’s above-mentioned despatch, I would
suggest that your Excellency should consult Mr. Whittall and enquire whether it is
true that the Minister of Public Works sent the telegraphic instructions to the Vali of
Bagdad mentioned in the company’s letter, and, if so, whether he (Mr. Whittall)
considers it advisable that you should urge the Porte to see that these orders are
obeyed or take any action at all in the matter at the present stage.
I am, &c.
E. GREY.
* Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company, August 23, 1911.
[2180 a—2]

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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.’ [‎16r] (31/630), 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_100031751616.0x000029> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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