"مذكرة تتعلق بالملاحة في نهري دجلة والفرات". [و‎‎٦‎٧] (٢٨٤/١٣٤)

Part II.
BRITISH EIGHTS BY TEEATY WITH
EEGAED TO THE NAVIGATION OF
THE TIGEIS AND EUPHEATES.
THE rights of British subjects in Turkey are,
owing to the expiration of other treaties, mainly
regulated by the Capitulations of September
1675, but no mention is made therein of any
rights to navigate the internal waters of Turkey,
and the only method of securing such privileges
would appear to be by appealing to the most
favoured-nation clause (article 18), which is as
follows:—
1 hat all Capitulations, privileges, and articles,
granted to the French, Venetian, and other Princes,
who are in amity with the Sublime Porte, having been
in like manner, through favour, granted to the English,
by virtue of our special command, the same shall always
be observed according to the form and tenour thereof,
so that no one in future do presume to violate the same
or act in contravention thereof."
The Capitulations or treaties which apply
to internal navigation are those with the
Netherlands of the 17th September, 1680; with
Austria, signed at Passarovitz on the 27th July,
1718, the preamble and article 1; and the
Sened, or " Capitulations nouvelles " of the 24th
February, 1784, article 4, 6, and 7 ; the Eussian
Convention of 1783 ; and the Belgian Treatv of
1838.
The Dutch Capitulations of 1680, article 56,
say, " Les negociants et autres sujets neerlandais
pourront transporter les marchandises
qu'ils auront achetees; ils pourront les charrier
par terre et par le Don a Azoff en Moscovie et en
Hussie." As the Don was at that time partly in
Ottoman territory, rights of navigation on the
Turkish portion of that river were thus granted
to Dutch merchants.
It may be said that the case of the Don is not
comparable with that of the Tigris and Euphrates,
because it was not at that time wholly within
Turkish territory, but it should be noted that
these rights were granted before the date of the
Treaty of Vienna. The case is quoted to show
that Turkish practice was not at that time
opposed to the navigation of their rivers by
foreigners.
[163—4] B