"مذكرة تتعلق بالملاحة في نهري دجلة والفرات". [و‎‎٩‎١] (٢٨٤/١٨٢)

29
1875— {cont.) " They (Messrs. Lynch) would not he exceed- 1
ing the terms of the firman whereby permission
was granted to them to employ two vessels in the
company's service on the Euphrates."
Sir II. Elliot,
No. 169,
March 31.
Sir H. Elliot,
No. 186, April 8.
To Euphrates and
Tigris Steam
Navigation
•Oompany,
April 24.
Euphrates and
Tigris Steam
Navigation
Company,
April 26.
Euphrates and
Tigris Steam
Navigation
Company,
June 11.
Enclosure in
Sir H. Elliot,
No. 61, Consular,
May 29.
Sir H. Elliot reported that the Porte had
agreed to the replacement of the " City of
London/' and had also granted permission to
Messrs. Lynch to employ their steam-launch
under exceptional circumstances and when the
water was low.
In its note the Porte said :—
" La Porte consente a ce que Tun des deux
bateaux que Messrs. Lynch emploient en vertu
d'un , firman Imperial pour le service des
passagers et des marchandises sur le Tigre soit
provisoirement remplace par un autre sans que
le nombre des navires autorise par le susdit
firman puisse etre augmente."
Sir H. Elliot stated that he was informed that
the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation
Company had ordered a steam-tug and two iron
lighters for the service between Bussornh and
Mohammerah, and he thought this was im
prudent on their part, in view of the fact
that their passenger launch only ran on
sufferance. Thereupon the company were told
that Her Majesty's Government were not
prepared to ask for further privileges for them
than those which the Porte had already accorded,
but in this letter it Avas assumed that the inten
tion was to put the lighters on the Tigris and
Euphrates.
The report, however, was stated by the
company to be entirely without foundation, as
they " had no intention of placing either an
additional steamer or lighter on those rivers,"
nor, as they subsequeutly stated, on the river
between Bussorah and Mohammerah.
At the same time Colonel Nixon, consul-general
at Bagdad, complained that the vice-consul at
Bussorah was supporting Messrs. Lynch Brothers,
of that town, " in encroachments upon the
Turkish prerogatives respecting the navigation
of the Tigris and Euphrates." Various com
plaints had been put forward by that firm
against the Government of Bussorah, including
O
two relative to the seizure of their boats at
Amarah and to the detention of their steam-launch
[163] 1