'File No. II/8 Foreign Dept Memoranda of Information re. affairs in Turkish Arabia. Nov '07 --' [‎43r] (85/110)

CONFIDENTIAI
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. .
12. 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. in Turkish
Disturbances on the Arabia reports indica*
T1 B ris - tions of unrest among
the Arabs on the Tigris. A British and a
Turkish steamer have been fired upon. Colonel
Ramsay is taking steps to carry out certain
alterations in the “ Comet M with a view to
making her fit to take the Resident to the
disturbed area, if necessary, or to escort
British ships.
13. 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. has brought
Prospects of modern to the notice of the
tannery at Baghdad. Indian Commercial In
telligence Department, for the information
of firms interested in the leather trade, the
good prospects which Baghdad offers for the
establishment of a modern tannery.
14. ( Vide paragraph 207 of the Memo-
Navigation of the randum for November
rivers of Mesopotamia. 190&.) Colonel Ramsay
recently endeavoured, with the approval of His
Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador at Constanti
nople, to obtain permission from the Yali of
Baghdad to take the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. steamer
“ Comet ” up to the Hindiya Barrage on the
Euphrates on the pretext of affording Sir
"William Willcocks an opportunity of inspect
ing the projected irrigation works.
The Yali, when approached on the subject,
replied that he saw no objection, but subse
quently qualified his assent with the proviso
that he should not be held responsible for the
conduct of the Arabs in the Basra Vilayet.
Colonel Ramsay said he had nothing to fear
from the Arabs if the Basra authorities were
directed not to be obstructive or to send alarmist
telegrams to Constantinople. The Vali seemed
doubtful on this point and suggested that a
message should be sent to the Grand Yizier. The
latter replied that “ there might be objections ”
to Sir William going up in the “ Comet ”,
and that it would be better if he hired another
vessel. The Resident, therefore, abandoned the
idea of making the trip, but he considers that
nothing has been lost by the negotiations,
for his conversations with the Vali and
the latter’s reference to Constantinople show
clearly that the real question at issue was
not whether he could take the “ Comet ”
up the Euphrates, but whether the Turkish
Government would like its engineeer to ask
the British Resident to take him up in that
vessel. Colonel Ramsay now proposes, the
next time he is at Basra, to take the “ Comet ”
a short way up the Euphrates, nominally in
search of good shooting, but really to get the
Basra Vilayet officials accustomed to seeing
the ship pass Gurna.