File 4949/1912 Pt 1 ‘Persian Gulf: Abu Musa oxide’ [‎245r] (498/566)

rrom Viceroy, 28th June 1913.
telegrams received fromCox':— Y ° Ur telegram dated ?,rd ' Tl,ne - Following
pondence !" all P oints referred will necessitate corres-
of tLt my v ews a?e?7l Lmgah ° r V ‘ sit t0 localit J- concerned. Short
at my views are as follows on memorandum of 10th March.
k nnimm" 111 - °a 0 P lnion ^ lat ’ 80 ^ ar as question of mine is involved there
can be wolked'nrofi^W 10n 'rf* th ? re m " 8t be 80me la P se of timfi before it
market. ecI Profitably. I he only question is the difficulty of finding a
entirely W‘isltf. ♦ ® ug ^? st ! on ‘hat preparations of several years are
is no reason whv thn fo ” n dation. Supposing the existence of oxide, there
to fur dsh anv h lu, -r? 0 have obtamed concessions should not guarantee
“ Regarding statement of claims
^U 1 h" se 1 Tu The v re has been no destruction of deposits, and only one
is not considehbia be ®“ rem ° Ved ' but 111 “V circumstances amount claimed
„ t . 0 tiause 2. It is my belief that suggestions regarding results of exposure
are the outcome of imagination. It has been the custom all through history
matTrbd eS h a 0n kV'I 8 Jf ^pnrely manner when times have been slack, and
matenal has habitually lain for months, and occasionally for years, before
exMsmlYn a^d 1 earn from an authority expert in such matters that
heaps which acts as* effective protection hTtiieir^nterior”^ Such a^hin^as
* — *—• * ■»«-
11 ' Clause 3.- The sum which is claimed for this purpose is preposterous •
all that remains to be done is to clear a little debris caused by small landslip
from under digging We might invalidate this claim by an offer to carry
out this work ourselves. * ^
“ 9!, ause do "P*. 86 ® an 3;' justification for paying compensation.
Ltause I his claim has been much exaggerated and is a difficult one
m any case to estimate except arbitrarily. My belief, however, is that it is
the most convenient head for paying a lump sum in settlement of the case.”
Second. “ In any case a concession to a foreigner would be inconsistent
w ith our authoritative advice to the Sheikhs and would create a bad impres-
sion and I think that must be ruled out Most satisfactory course were to
market° nCkhaUS ° Ut alt0getller if P ossible and to let him compete in open
In this^ connection it might be of considerable advantage to Strick to
participate m Abu Musa concession in order to strengthen his position as
regards Hormuz. In the first place, he could probably use Abu Musa article
to mix with the Hormuz quality and thus sell more of it. In the second
place, he could fall back on the Abu Musa article if the Hormuz arrangement
went wrong. For the above reasons Strick might be prepared to pay down a
lump sum m order to be our nominee, associated with Esa Bin Abdul Latif
and L- HassanJ bamiyeh, if the latter cannot be kept out of it. This sum
would be a contribution towards compensation to Wonckhaus. I would in
any case recommend that Strick be sounded on these lines and if His
Majesty’s Foreign Office do not wish to appear Captain Wilson could perhaps
be instructed to do it as an informal message from me If Wonckhaus
cannot be bought out altogether we might arrange for new companies to
give him advantageous rates for a certain period in lieu of compensation.
I his they can afford to do as they have no heavy royalty to pay as in the
We agree generally with Cox’s views, and consider that by far the best
solution and the one most likely to avoid further trouble is to buy Wonckhaus
out altogether.