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File 1093/1915 Pt 2 ‘Persian Gulf:- Proposed revival of British Consulate at Basra. Portuguese interests in Iraq’ [‎142r] (135/334)

The record is made up of 1 item (164 folios). It was created in 23 Sep 1922-20 Jun 1929. 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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towards which India had hitherto contributed nothing
the argument from the Resolution of the Economic Conference
would have more force, but the case is one of the revival
of a consulate the whole cost of which was borne by India
the
before the war -/contribution of £1400 paid by this Office
to the Foreign Office before and after the settlement
following the Welby Commission being intended to recoup
that Department completely for its expenditure at Basra.
The Resolution of the Economic Conference contemplated
give and take arrangements and can hardly have been
intended to suggest that a Dominion should decline to
contribute a share of the cost where its interests
involved were so important as in the present case. The
historical position has a bearing, I think, on the question
at issue:-
(1) Before the Welby Commission settlement India
ran the whole of the diplomatic and consular
establishments in 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. , with the
exception of the Consulate at Basra, which was
run by the Foreign Office, but paid for by India.
The A g enc y Basra was paid for direct by India.
The expenditure amounted in all (taking ls.4d to
the rupee) to about £7,500 a year (see Statement
"A” attached), while the Budget for 1895-6, the
figures in which were the latest placed before the
Welby Commission, provided over £4,000 in addition
for a Consulate house at Basra.
( 2 ) Under the settlement following the report of the
Commission this expenditure, with the exception
of the cost of the Basra consulate was nooled
with our expenditure in Persia for the purpose
of the half and half division recommended by the
Commission, so that in e ffect from 1900 uo to
the Great War we and the Foreign Office shared
the cost in moieties, except in the case of the
I Basra Consulate , the full cost of which India
I still continued to pay. (I doubt whether this
exception was deliberate. It was due simply,
I Imagine, to accidental separation of the"
figures).
[3)
Since the outbreak of the Great War diplomatic
and consulate expenditure by India in Turkish
Fo-ptL h n?f- CeaSed ' alS0 0Ur cont ribution to the
Foreign Office in respect of Basra.
The

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Correspondence and other papers concerning the proposed re-appointment of a British Consul at Basra, and how the new post should be funded. Subjects covered include: whether the Consul at Mohammerah [Khorramshahr] could also be appointed Consul at Basra (the two places being in close geographical proximity); the High Commissioner for Iraq’s (Henry Robert Conway Dobbs) argument that a full-time Consul is required for the post; discussion between officials from the Government of India and the Foreign Office about who should fund the new appointment; assessments of the importance of British trade in Mesopotamia, including tables of statistical data outlining diplomatic and consular expenditure in 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. , and trade between India and 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. ; the Government of India’s refusal to contribute to the cost of the Basra Consulate; the transfer of land and property associated with Basra consulate from the Government of India to HM’s Office of Works; a further report written by Dobbs, dated 1928, arguing for the appointment of a British Consul at Basra, enclosing a memorandum written by Charles Wills of the Mesopotamia-Persia Corporation Limited.

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1 item (164 folios)
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English in Latin script
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File 1093/1915 Pt 2 ‘Persian Gulf:- Proposed revival of British Consulate at Basra. Portuguese interests in Iraq’ [‎142r] (135/334), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/547/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100058781645.0x000059> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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