File 2249/1915 Pt 4 ‘Oil: Mesopotamia & Persia. (General File) 1920–24’ [‎66r] (131/484)

as the Turkish Petroleum Company and other groups, claim similar rights either in
Mesopotamia or in Palestine. These claims will naturally have to be given practical
consideration and receive equitable treatment consistent with the interests of the
mandated territories.
17. As part of the administrative arrangements under the treaty of peace with
-^Turkey and the mandate, the oil deposits in Mesopotamia will be secured to the future
Arab State, but it is far from the intention of the mandatory Power to establish on its
owm behalf any kind of monopoly.
18. In view of long-standing interests which the French Government possessed in
the Mosul district, arrangements were made wFereby the French Government should,
on renouncing those interests, be assured of a certain participation in the Mesopotamian
oil production. It was accordingly decided that, in the event of the Mesopotamian
oilfields being developed by the State, France should be entitled to purchase 25 per cent,
of the oil production at ordinary market rates, or, in the alternative of the oilfields being
developed by private enterprise, that French participation should not be less than
25 per cent, in the share-holdings, while provision was made that the Mesopotamian
Administration should likewise have a certain share.
19. In consideration for such participation, the French Government agreed to
permit the laying of a pipe-line from the Mesopotamian oilfields through Syria, besides
providing for other facilities. These arrangements, including others for mutual
co-operation in other countries, were embodied in an agreement which has been
published. The practical outcome of the arrangement, so far as Mesopotamia is
concerned, is that, while France secures a share in the output of oil at ordinary market
rates, the Mesopotamian State is afforded, in return, facilities for placing the production
of the oilfields within easy reach of the world’s markets. The agreement aims at no
monopoly, it does not exclude other interests, and gives no exclusive right to the
mandatory Power, while the Mesopotamian State is free to develop the oilfields in any
way it may judge advisable, consistent with the interests of the country.
20. I feel bound to observe that, even if any special privileges were assigned to
France under this agreement, such a proceeding would be consistent with the
interpretation consistently placed by the United States Government on most-favoured
nation clauses in treaties, namely, that special privileges conceded to particular
countries in return for specific concessions cannot, in virtue of such a clause, be claimed
by other countries not offering such concessions. The United States Government have
indeed recently taken a further step in the case of the <c Jones ” Act, and have taken
powers actually to withdraw treatment secured by treaties which in some cases contain
no provision for denunciation.
21. As regards the alleged action of the Administration of Tanganyika territory
referred to in the penultimate paragraph of your note of the 28th ultimo, I should be
obliged if you would furnish me with the names of any persons who have been refused
privileges granted to British subjects and the dates of their applications.
I have, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.
No. 4.
#
Mr. Davis to Earl Curzon.—(Received December 7.)
Embassy of the United States of America,
My Lord, London, December 6, 1920.
WITH reference to my note of the 22nd November last, in which I communicated
to you a note from the Secretary of State of the United States concerning the mandate
and Mesopotamian oil situation, I have now the honour to transmit, herewith
enclosed, the communication addressed to your Lordship upon this subject, dated the
20th November, 1920, and signed by the Honourable Bainbridge Colby, Secretary of
State of the United Stajbes of America, a comparison of the text of which with that as
transmitted in my afore-mentioned note will disclose certain relatively unimportant
■changes in the verbiage.
I have, &c.
JOHN W. DAVIS.