"مذكرة تتعلق بالملاحة في نهري دجلة والفرات". [ظ‎‎٩‎٣] (٢٨٤/١٨٧)

34
replied that Her Majesty's Government did not 1880—(con^.)
consider that any conditions of that nature could
be imposed on the navigation of the Tigris and
Euphrates by the vessels of the company.
The company were informed of this corre- To Euphrates and
, , j . .» i. Tigris Steam
spondence, and were requested, at the same time, Navigation
to explain the precise state of the case as to the
employment of barges and boats, other than the
two steamers, by the company in the navigation
of the rivers.
To this the company replied as follows :— Euphrates and
1 J 1 Tigris Steam
Navigation
" In reply, I have to inform your Lordship ( 'ompanT,
ijla V
that both before and after the firman of 1634,
granting the right of navigation for two
steamers, large boats under the English flag
navigated those rivers free from all exactions to
which native-owned boats were subjected. In
1846 it was, by order of the Porte, arranged that
all these boats employed in internal trade for the
transmission of cargo should continue the navi- See vizierial letter
gation under their foreign flags, but should pay ^ppendix'x^C 6 )'
the same taxes (" droits") as those owned by
Ottoman subjects, thus implying and confirming
the prescriptive right.
" The injurious effect of this tax was apparent,
and all dues, at the instigation of Her Majesty's
Ambassador at Constantinople, were shortly
afterwards entirely abolished. That this arrange
ment did not refer to steamers is proved bv the
fact that there were at that time no trading
steamers on the rivers of Mesopotamia either
native or foreign owned.
44 1 am also in a position to state that in 1846,
when this question was under consideration, the
firm of Messrs. S. Lynch and Co. and others,
both Persian and Indian subjects, possessed boats
of 150- to iiOO-tons burden navigating the rivers
and transporting merchandise, and, since the
formation of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam
Na\ igation Company, the same description of
boats, the property of British subjects, have
been employed uninterruptedly in conveying coal
and firewood for the use of the steamers, and
for other purposes, occasionally being towed by
the steamers.
" Last year, owing to the low state of the river,
and a o.o-scquent cessation of through communi-
cahon, which was greatly to the detriment of
commerce, my directors decided upon providing
steel barges of light draft, never doubting that