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File 1808/1912 'Bagdad Railway. Navigation of the Tigris & Lynch's Agreement with the Company for the transport of railway material.' [‎63r] (130/514)

The record is made up of 1 volume (253 folios). It was created in 27 Mar 1912-15 Apr 1913. 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 the Secreta ry of State for India in Council
Secret.
Bagdad-Basra Railway.
I. The present position.—Kt the interdepartmental conference of 30th
March 1911, Sir E. Grey proposed that we should ask for 50 per cent,
participation, and a memorandum for the Turkish Government was prepared
on this basis. On the 7th April 1911 the Board of Trade wrote that there
were “only two practicable policies ” ( 1 ) “ to participate in the working of
the southern section on terms of equality with German}*, but to the
“ exclusion of all third parties as regards control,” and ( 2 ) to refuse
participation altogether. Xo further communications passed between the
depaitments on this subject, but on 12th July 1911 a draft memorandum to
the I urkish Government was privately communicated to the 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. ,
this memoianaum contained the proposal, which was actually made to the
Turkish Ambassador on 29th July 1911, that Great Britain, Russia, France,
Germany, and Turkey, should participate at the rate of 20 per cent, each,
and that a convention should be drawn up precluding differential rates on
all the i ail ways of Asia Minor. The Turkish Government replied on 15th
April 1012 , not expressly rejecting this proposal, but substituting 25 per
cant, paiticipation for Great Britain, France, Germany, and Turkey, to the
exclusion of Russia. But in the private discussions that preceded the
despatch ol this reply the Turkish representatives more than once stated in
the stlongest teiins their objection, on political grounds, to the inclusion of
Russia, and said that if His Majesty s Government pressed it they would be
obliged to insist on the admission of Switzerland. This His Majesty’s
Government would of course not be able to accept, for it would strengthen
the Bagdad Railway Company’s interest at our expense. Russia, it will be
borne in mind, has said that, while she only wants to help us, she wants to
be admitted if France is admitted.
The Turkish counter-proposal of 15th April 1912 is therefore not a mere
modification of our own, but, in effect, a complete rejection of it. A new
situation is thus created, and it is submitted that m the circumstances His
Majesty’s Government are bound to consider it on its merits, and that it is
possible foi us, without doing any violence to diplomatic conventions, or
giving any just cause of offence to Turkey, to treat our proposal of 29th July
1911 as completely out of court, and to substitute for it a better one, if such
can be found.
It may lie conceded that as we have actually proposed the admission of
France and Russia our position is no longer as strong as it was for proposing
their omission. But here the Turks have fortunately helped us. For if
Russia insists on participating in the event of French participation, while
Turkey will admit France but not Russia, the result is a deadlock of which
the only solution is the omission of both.
The following considerations are intended to show that the proposal
of 29th July 1911 should not be pressed, and that the terms which Sir
E. Grey originally wished to put forward are, as the Board of Trade held,
the only ones on which we should now consent to participate.
II. The objections to the last proposals made by His Majesty's Govern-
ment .—The view underlying those proposals is that, provided we can secure

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Content

The volume concerns the navigation of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and moves by The Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (also referred to as Messrs Lynch) to negotiate an agreement with the Baghdad Railway Company for the transport of railway material up the rivers of 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. .

The principal correspondents are senior officials of the Foreign Office, the 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. , and the Board of Trade; and the Secretary of The Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company.

The papers cover: contracts and agreements; Russian concern over the proposed agreement; the formation of a joint company to operate river transport on the Euphrates and Tigris; the assertion by Britain of exceptional rights to navigation on the rivers of Mesopotamia; and papers concerning the general Baghdad Railway question.

The French language content of the volume consists of contracts, agreements and conventions, with English translations.

The volume contains conventions and agreements that are earlier than the man date range, dated 1903-11.

Extent and format
1 volume (253 folios)
Arrangement

The subject 1808 (Bagdad Railway) consists of one volume only. The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 255; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 3-254; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 1808/1912 'Bagdad Railway. Navigation of the Tigris & Lynch's Agreement with the Company for the transport of railway material.' [‎63r] (130/514), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/271, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100036166449.0x000083> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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