"مذكرة تتعلق بالملاحة في نهري دجلة والفرات". [و‎‎٤‎٤] (٢٨٤/٨٨)

71
India Office, that instructions in compliance with it should be
September 9,1881. . i -i ,
issued by the former.
Consul-General Plowden's opinion had been
asked for, with reference to the Porte's com
munication referred to above, on the question of
the navigation of the Shatt-el-Arab by foreign
ships of war. He thought that the whole
question at issue had been conceded by the Porte
in the phrase " de remonter le fleuve au-dessus
de Courna," as it was not possible for men-of-
war of the class usually visiting Bussorah to
ascend the Shatt-el-Arab for any appreciable
distance beyond Kurna, and none had, so far as
he could ascertain, ever done so; but he sug
gested that probably the word Kurna had been
wrongly substituted for Bussorah. Although it
was desirable that British ships of war visiting
Bussorah from time to time should have full
liberty to proceed as far as Kurna,* he considered
that this measure alone would not suffice to
protect British commerce on the Lower Tigris,
and put forward the suggestion that the
<f Comet,"f which had been recognised in the
Porte's npte of the 10th July, 1869, as " un
batiment de la marine Boy ale," should be
replaced by a vessel of the Royal Navy. Lord
Dufferin proposed, and his proposal was ap-
January 3 1882 proved, to inform the Porte that there was no
question of British men-of-war ascending above
Kurna, and to wait a more favourable oppor
tunity for obtaining the Sultan's consent to
Mr. Plowden's suggestion as to stationing a
Queen's ship at Bagdad.
To Musurus Pasha, In the following year (1883) Her Majesty's
April 21, 1883. gjjjp «< Eclipse " visited Bussorah, and, in reply
' to his enquiry as to the reason for the presence
of the vessel at that port, Musurus Pasha was
informed that, although in deference to the
wishes of the Porte, British ships of war did not
proceed further up the river than Kurna, Her
* He quoted the case of the " Akbar" in 1854, which
ascended the Shatt-el-Arab as far as 3 miles of Kurna without
previously obtaining permission, and commented on the
" Philomel " case in 1874.
f In 1879 a grant of 3,000/. from Imperial funds was made
towards the cost of a new steamer to replace the " Comet."
The vessel was completed in 1881, but was found on account
of its excessive draught to be unsuitable for employment on
the Tigris and Euphrates. Another one was built, and in 1884
the old " Comet" was broken up and an irade issued authorising
the employment in its place of the new vessel, also called the
"Comet." (Mr. Wyndham, No. 313, September 17, 1884.)
Enclosure in
Lord Dufferin's
No. 1118,
December 18,
1881.
Lord Dufferin,
No. 4,