سياسي (خارجي) ٧٦٢٩\١٩٣٤ "مطالبة السادة وونكهاوس المتعلقة بأكسيد أبو موسى" [و‎‎٢‎٣] (٥٧/٤٤)

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grant to the nephew of this man the right of taking up the
old negotiations in London again with the result of coming to
an Agreement, by which the compensation practically fixed
before the outbreak of the war in a way seeming fair to His
Majesty’s Government would yet be granted to Messrs*Robert
Wonckhaus & Co. The amount today, interest included, would
work out to well over Mark 2,000,000.- The firm,
represented by Mr.Zinnow, who is at present in London
staying at the "Waldorf Hotel, Aldwhych, London, W.C.2,
respectfully asks to be brought together with the competent
Authority, in order to discuss such possibilities. The
future of Mr.Zinnow’s children is also greatly at stake,
as owing to the present Arian law so acute in Germany, they
will have great difficulties as regards their future and
probably will be forced later on to make their living abroad.
The firm neither before nor after the War has ever
mixed itself into politics contrary to accusations made.
They were a pure business concern, which Mr.Wonckhaus, who
more than once had the intention of placing his firm under
British protection, had worked up most energetically from the
start in the Gulf in 1898. When Mr.Zinnow entered the firm,
the late Sir Otto Beit, Bart., K.C.M.G., then Mr.Otto Beit,
for a period of 10 years lent him £50,000.-.-, which amount
together with Mr.Zinnow’s own capital, went into the firm and
was paid back, including interest accumulated for the period
of the war, in 1920 in full. This to prove that the bulk
of the firm’s money was of British origin and it might be of
interest that when Mr.Wonckhaus in his capacity as Honorary
German Consul at Bassorah, was ordered shortly after the
outbreak of the war by the German Government to do all in his
power to destroy the Anglo Persian Oil Wells in Southern
Persia, he refused to do so, declaring such enterprise a
most foolish thing, to which he would not lend his hand and
promptly/