File 523/1912 Pt 1 'Persia: Imperial Bank: mint contract' [‎154r] (303/386)

// ^ n
[This Document is the Property of His Britanmc Majesty's Oo¥emment.l
» r ' "™" ' '•’ .. — nr ^
&« ^-aai
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
I O
[July 15.]
Section 1,
[31513]
No. I.
Foreign Office to Imperial Bank of Persia,
Sir, _ Foreign Office, July 15, 1913.
I AM directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to state, for the information of the
directors of the Imperial Bank of Persia, that he has given careful consideration to your
recent communications regarding the question of the Mint Agreement of the
27th November, 1911, between the Persian Treasurer-General and the Imperial Bank,
against the validity of which instrument he has received energetic protests from the
Russian Government.
Sir E. Grey is unable to share your opinion that the Treasurer-General received by
the law of the 23rd Janza, 1329 (13th June, 1911), full authority to conclude
agreements for long periods of time on his own initiative and without reference to the
Medjliss.
Sir E. Grey was unable to allow His Majesty’s Legation to take notes of the
agreement at the time of its being presented for registration five months after its
conclusion, because its validity appeared to him to be doubtful, and because it was
impossible for His Majesty’s Government to approve of a monopoly in favour of your
bank when they had obtained assurances from the Persian Government that they would
not grant such a monopoly to any one bank, institution, or person.
Sir Arthur Hardinge obtained an assurance in the above sense from the Atabeg-i-
Azam in 1901 and again in April 1907. Sir C. Spring-Rice received a promise from the
Minister for Foreign Affairs that no preference in the matter of the importation of silver
for coinage should be granted to anyone by the Persian Government.
In view of their attitude in the past His Majesty’s Government might expose
themselves to a charge of inconsistency should they now support your claim to such a
monopoly, even if they held that the validity of your agreement could not be called in
question.
Sir E. Grey is, however, fully alive to the claim of your bank under your concession,
and is of opinion that, even if you had not under that concession the implied grant of a
right to import silver for minting, and such right remained exclusively in the hands of
the Persian Government, the latter could not divest themselves thereof in favour of any
third party to such an extent as would put it out of their own power to permit your
bank to import for minting purposes sufficient silver to enable you to perform your
concessionary obligations.
I am accordingly to suggest, for the favourable consideration of your board, that a
compromise might be effected on the following lines, viz., that the right to import for
minting purposes enough silver for the fulfilment of your concessionary obligations be
assured to the Imperial Bank, and that, subject to that right, the privilege of importing
silver for coinage should be shared by the Imperial Bank and the Banque des Prets et
d’Escompte.
I am, &c.
W. LANGLEY.
2
[2987 p—1]