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File 74/1915 Pt 4 'Mesopotamia: Imperial Ottoman Bank, Baghdad Branch' [‎283r] (279/422)

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The record is made up of 1 item (210 folios). It was created in 25 Mar 1917-3 Feb 1921. It was written in English. 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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26 ,Throgmorton Street, e.c
“BIOTTO STOCK,LONDON
Mar Sir,
We have received your letter of the 30th July (P.3072)
and very much regret te etate that it ie inpeeeible for us in
view of all our various responsibilities to our Shareholders
and Clients, British and Allied, te he satisfied with the reply
therein.
as far as we are aware, sufficiently acquainted with our affairs
te justify his categorical statement that the interests in
Mesopotamia of our Shareholders can he adequately looked after
hy the Management of the Basra Branch, still less to report that
no useful purpose would he served hy the visit oi Mx Critcbley
to make a report decided upon as necessary hy • respensible body
with full knowledge of their requirements.
make clear the composition of this Bank, which being as it is.
obliges us as British Subjects protecting British sad Allied
Shareholders and Clients to ask again that Mr Critebley, a
British-born subject and a practical Banker with experience and
knowledge derived from a reeidenee in Mesopotamia, ehouio be
forthwith permitted to go te Bagdad in order te enquire into the
Me submit that the Felltleal Officer at Basra ia net.
ft nave in our previous corrsspondence endeavoured to

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This part contains correspondence and 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. Minute Papers relating to the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Mesopotamia [Iraq], mainly concerning the Baghdad branch.

It includes papers regarding:

  • The decision of the British Government, on the recommendation of local British political authorities, to close the Baghdad branch of the Imperial Ottoman Bank for the duration of the First World War, on the grounds that the Bank was identified with enemy interests, and it continued to do enemy business up to the date of the British occupation of Baghdad, and was recognised by the Turkish authorities as a Government bank.
  • The proposal of the London Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of the Bank to send their representative Mr Critchley to Baghdad to enquire into the interests of the Bank’s shareholders and clients in Mesopotamia, and their later proposal to send Mr H R Saltmarsh and Mr E E Humphries instead of Critchley.
  • The proposal of the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, that the Baghdad branch of the Bank should be allowed to re-open.
  • Permission being granted to the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Basra to correspond with its Constantinople [Istanbul] Office.
  • The visit of Lord Goschen, a director of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, to Mesopotamia.
  • A query by Drysdale and Company Limited about whether the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Baghdad was ‘a safe and sound’ institution, in response to a customer asking the company to accept payment at the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Baghdadthe proposal that the Baghdad and Mosul branches of Bank should be permitted to settle transactions dating back to the period before the British occupation.

The correspondence largely consists of correspondence between 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 following: the Foreign Office; Sir William Plender, appointed by the Treasury as Supervisor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank’s London Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ; the Imperial Ottoman Bank, London Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ; the Viceroy of India, Foreign Department; and the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad (telegrams addressed from ‘Political, Baghdad’). The file also includes copies of Foreign Office correspondence with the London Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, and Sir Reginald Wingate, High Commissioner, Egypt.

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1 item (210 folios)
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English in Latin script
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File 74/1915 Pt 4 'Mesopotamia: Imperial Ottoman Bank, Baghdad Branch' [‎283r] (279/422), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/531/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100048952595.0x0000b1> [accessed 23 July 2026]

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