File 1855/1904 Pt 10 'Koweit:- Relations with Turkey. Sheikh's properties at Fao and Fadaghia' [‎133r] (265/398)

[This Document is the Property of H is Britannic Majesty’s Government,]
ASIATIC TURKEY AND A RABIA. [March 8.]
WITH reference to my despatch No. 138 of the 28th ultimo, in which’ I urged
the desirability of not at present raising the question of the Sheikh of Koweit’s claim
to property near Pao and to my telegram of the same date, I have the honour to
transmit herewith the best account of tlie interpellation in the Chamber on the subject
of the Bagdad Bailway Convention which appeared in the local press. While the
Convention was severely criticized by several Deputies, who treated the subject in
detail, the Minister of Public W orks, who is now acting as Minister for Boreign
Affairs, defended it on general lines, and though his explanations do not seem very
convincing, they were accepted as sufficient by a majority of the House.
Among the five points raised in Ismail Hakki Bey’s interpellation is that of
Koweit as a possible terminus for the railway. In bis reply the Minister merely stated
that the question of the terminus bad not yet been settled, and that it must depend
on further local investigations and considerations of commercial expediency. But in !
the ensuing discussion the interpellator stated that Lord Curzon had rendered the
status of Koweit a somewhat anomalous one, having perhaps exceeded the wishes of
bis Government in the matter, but that it was to be hoped that the friendship of
England would not suffer such a state of affairs to continue. The Ottoman Govern
ment was at the same time an Islamic Government, and England would never sacrifice
immense interests for the sake of a little corner like Koweit. By this the speaker |
alluded presumably to the possibility of the spread of disaffection among the Moslems
in India, owing to British encroachments on the dominions of the Caliph, but he went
on to smooth any susceptibility that might be affected by such a reference by the
declaration that the presence of Bifaat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. at the Ministry of Eoreign Affairs on
his arrival from England would be a proof of the friendly spirit entertained among
Ottomans for England. To the question as to why the route followed the Konia
plain instead of the Angora-Osesarea line, in which decision foreign intervention was
suspected, the Minister replied that it was solely on economic grounds that the
northern route was abandoned. As regards the alleged existence of an Agreement
with Russia, reserving all Railway Concessions within a certain zone in Northern
Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. to Russian enterprise, the Minister declined to make a definite statement,
but said that understandings come to with the Russian Government previous to the
introduction of Constitutional Government in both countries could easily be recast
in view of the very friendly relations which now existed between Turkey and
Russia.
The interpellator laid stress on the political importance of the ownership of
shares, as evinced by the negotiations for tiie participation of English and French
capital on equal terms with Germany, negotiations which broke down through the
Anglo-French entente after the South African War. Ismail Hakki Bey criticized the
terms of the Convention in detail, pointing out that while the general rate of
kilometric guarantees should be from 8,000 fr. to 9,000 fr., the Ottoman Government
gave 15,000 fr., thus assuring a 4 per cent, interest on the capital. But it was not
the Company which found that capital, it was again the State which had to borrow it
and become the debtor instead of the Company. The Convention really included
seven or eight different Concessions, with all its different privileges for exploiting
mines, quarries, &c. As it was impossible to cancel the Concession, and to buy it in
would be more burdensome than its execution, the speaker said it only remained
either to stop the work or modify the Convention.
Another Deputy, after inveighing against the ruinous methods of the old Palace
camarilla generally and deploring the rejection of various previous offers to build the
line without a kilometric guarantee, showed that while the cost of constructing similar
railways in India was only about 130,000 fr. per kilom., the Bagdad Railway cost
269,000 fr. He then alluded to the financial situation of Turkey, and said the
anly hope of meeting the deficit of the Budget lay in raising the customs duties to
Section 3.
[8919J
No. 1.
(No. 156.)
Sir,
Sir G. Lowther to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received March 8.)
Pera, March 3, 1909.
[2205 h —3]
B