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File 74/1915 Pt 4 'Mesopotamia: Imperial Ottoman Bank, Baghdad Branch' [‎337r] (387/422)

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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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LONDON AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ,
26.Throgmorton street, e g.
TELEGRAMS:
8IOTTO, STOCK. LONDON.”
Bear Sir,
/ /
<>//:
11th April, 1917
The Official Supervisor of this Bank has sent us a copy
of your letter of the 3rd April on the subject of the Bagdad Branch.
This comes as a shock and a surprise to us, as after the occupation
of Basra by British forces, 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. authorised this Bank
to reopen its Branch at that place, and if we are permitted to
trade with the Port of Bagdad we cannot understand the refusal to
permit us to do so at the Commercial Centre itself.
The Proclamation issued to the inhabitants of Bagdad laid
stress upon facilitating trade and commerce.
The Bagdad Branch of this Bank, opened in 1892, was for very
many years the only Institution there with cm Office in London
facilitating commercial British business both of the district
round about and the transit business with Persia, and the help
it gave to British trade during all these years was most considerable.
Thus it seems to us that the closing of this Branch is not in accord*
ance with the intention expressed in the Proclamation.
Vvre the Imperial Ottoman Bank a Bank financed by Turkish money,
a prohibition against its Branch at Bagdad being allowed to do
business during the currency of the War would be obviously
onable, but as is well known the great majority of the Capital

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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)
Written in
English in Latin script
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File 74/1915 Pt 4 'Mesopotamia: Imperial Ottoman Bank, Baghdad Branch' [‎337r] (387/422), 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_100048952596.0x000055> [accessed 30 July 2026]

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