ملف ١٩٠٤/٢٧٦٤ الجزء ٢ "سكة حديد بغداد: مفاوضات عامة ١٩٠٨-١٩١٠." [و‎‎٣‎٨] (٧٩٩/٨٤)

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IThis Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
BAGDAD RAILWAY.
[April 30.]
SECRET.
Section 1.
[11933]
Sir Edward Grey to Tewfik Pasha.
No. 1.
FROM a careful perusal of the terms of the Bagdad Railway Convention of 1903
(of which a copy is enclosed for facility of reference), it will be observed that there is
no clause which confers on the holders of the concession a monopoly of railway
construction in Mesopotamia ; indeed, according to article 42, it is laid down that the
land to be expropriated shall be strictly confined to the area which is necessary for
the railway. Moreover, it cannot equitably be contended, apart altogether from the
terms of the convention of 1903, that, because a concession for a railway has been
granted to certain promoters along one specified alignment, the Ottoman Government
are ipso facto debarred from granting a further concession to other parties when that
concession is for a railway destined to serve another district. Such a contention,
if advanced, would be utterly preposterous; and inasmuch as it is stipulated in
article 34 that all disputes respecting the execution and interpretation of the
convention of 1903 shall be settled in the Ottoman courts, the ultimate decision as to
what the Ottoman Government may and may not do with regard to granting further
concessions would rest with those courts and with no foreign Power.
T-h® German Government have definitely informed His Majesty’s Government that
British participation in the Bagdad Railway will not be admitted on terms which His
Majesty s Government could possibly approve. In these circumstances, His Majesty’s
Government renew the application, to which the ex-Grand Vizier acceded in principle
in September last, for an entirely separate concession as indicated in the enclosed
despatch to His Majesty’s Ambassador at Constantinople. The reception with which
this renewed application may meet will, as stated in the despatch, affect the future
relations of this country towards the Ottoman Empire.
Foreign Office, April 30, 1910.
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