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Coll 28/51 ‘Persia. Relations with H.M.G. Treaty negotiations: Article regarding private claims.’ [‎33v] (66/357)

The record is made up of 1 file (176 folios). It was created in 13 Apr 1932-28 Dec 1936. 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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24
*
omission of these war-time claims from the scope of the agreement would,
however, reduce the totality of our claims from the provisional estimate, in
paragraph 39, of 15,228,725 krans, £361,810, 240,305 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. and 6,962 -40 dollars
to some 5,155,075 krans, £266,841, 181,700 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. and 6,962-40 dollars, apart
from additions of interest, from any further claims which may yet come to light,
and from any underwriters’ claims which may yet be made. It would also thiow
us back largely upon pre-war claims, where the evidence furnished is the most]
defective
66 . The proposal to eliminate these war-time claims arising between the
4th August, 1914, and the 22nd February, 1921, will doubtless provoke repre
sentations from parties who suffered losses during that period, but our case
against the Persian Government to repair these war-time losses does not seem to
rest upon any very strong ground, for most, if not all, of them may be attributed,
either directly or indirectly, to enemy action in Persia ; while we seem to have
admitted (to some extent at any rate), in the note which Sir P. Cox addressed to
the Persian Government on the 9th August, 1919, that Persia was powerless to
defend her neutrality. Towards the evacuations of Persian towns by British
firms and communities who had remained in Persia during the disturbances and
disorders which then prevailed, the correspondence here shows that His Majesty’s
Government and the Government of India went to considerable expense on their
behalf to convey them elsewhere; and often, in the case of our own officials, who
had no option but to remain, to compensate them for the loss or suffering involved
in outrages to which they were subjected. Incidentally, we drew upon Persian
funds to repair some of these war-time losses; while a waiver of them will involve
a non-settlement of such amounts as His Majesty’s Government and the Govern
ment of India contributed. It seems possible, however, that there may remain
one or two cases in which our officials sustained losses of property for which they
might represent they had not been fully compensated.
67. Peace-Time and Contractual Claims —If war-time claims were thus
excluded, these will remain.( 3 ) The following occupy the foremost places :—
Persian Railway Syndicate: £202,207, with 7 per cent, compound
interest. The figure is that given in 1924. In 1933 they offered to take
£134,653 odd; their latest estimate in 1934 makes the figure £373,331 odd.
Persian Transport Company: £50,000; but earlier £75,900.
Quarantine medical officers in Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. : 69,967 • 10 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. and
16,814-60 krans. We seem to be in need of a detailed account of these
figures from the Government of India.
Sir Wolseley Haig : £4,807. In 1921 he informed our Legation he
would be satisfied with £2,500.
Mr. T. Casey: £1,200. (Our Legation comment in 1909 on this was-
“It seems enormous.”)
The above total £258,214, 16,814-60 krans and 69,967-10 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. , leaving for the
remaining claims under this head some £8,627, 5,138.260 krans, 111,732 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf.
and 6,962-40 dollars, which is distributed over a great number of individual
claims for highway robberies, outrages of various kinds, losses in civil
disturbances, tribal raids, piracies, burglaries, &c. Among these is the large
and very doubtful one for 2,302,905 krans preferred by Messrs. Lynch or the
Persian Transport Company for the cost of running the steamship Shushan from
1902 to 1913, which seems to have little to rest on. If this claim were omitted as
likely of rejection, we have a total when all is included, for peace-time and
contractual claims, of some £266,841, 2,852,170 krans, 181,699 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. and
6,962 -40 dollars, which, however, in itself includes a sum of about 468,000 krans
claimed as interest by a Mr. Haycock on an original debt of some 100,000 krans
owing to him by the Persian authorities. Reduced to a sterling equivalent at
rates of 50 krans, 15 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. and 5 dollars to the £, the whole body of these
peace-time and contractual claims might be assumed to amount to at most some
£340,000, apart from further additions of interest claimed in some cases, which
there can be no certainty would be awarded by an arbitral tribunal in the absence
of any treaty provision on the subject of interest.
( 3 ) A short summary of these is given on pp. vii to xxii of the volume Legation Claims
immediately after the index. [This summary is printed below as Appendix 3.]

About this item

Content

Correspondence and other papers relating to the drafting of an article for the Anglo-Persian Treaty, concerning private claims made against the British and Persian Governments. The correspondence concerns: the exclusion from the article of British Indian claims; an agreement by both parties to not pursue certain claims arising from the ‘exceptional circumstances obtaining during the [First] world war’ (f 155); general treaty instructions from 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. , sent to the British Legation in Tehran; details of an historic claim for approximately £900,000, made against the British Government by a Persian subject named Socrates Atychides, whose ship, the Kara Deniz , was detained and declared as prize at Bombay [Mumbai] in 1914; a printed copy of a general review of British claims against Persia, prepared by Hugh Ritchie, formerly of the Foreign Office. Ritchie’s review includes indexes to supplementary volumes (not included in the file) entitled Persia (Legation Claims) , Persia: Consulate Claims (Peace-Time), and Persia: Consulate Claims (War-Time) (ff 22-51). The indexes are lists of British claimants.

Principal correspondents in the file include: John Charles Walton and John Gilbert Laithwaite of 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. ; George William Rendel and Christopher Frederick Ashton Warner of the Foreign Office; W R L Trickett of HM’s Treasury.

The file contains a single paragraph of French text: a draft of the claims article submitted by the Government of Persia (f 168).

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (176 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 178; 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. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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Coll 28/51 ‘Persia. Relations with H.M.G. Treaty negotiations: Article regarding private claims.’ [‎33v] (66/357), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3456, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100046162934.0x000045> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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