"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٥‎٦‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٧٢٤)

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1569
Burat and Firman are the same as those accorded to other Consular officers ; and he
enjoys the same privileges as other Consular Officers * * Any attempt to
obtain his recognition as a political Resident would inevitably rouse the strongest
feelings of jealous resentment on the part of the Imperial Government, which could
only be allayed if at all, by re-assuring explanations of the duties and position of such
a functionary.
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It appeared to Sir W. White that either the position and duties of the
" British Political Resident' in Turkish 'Irarq should be defined, with a
view to an attempt being made to obtain their recognition by the Porte,
or that the advisability of abolishing the title should be considered. The
India Office, on being consulted deprecated any change in the nature of
the Baghdad appointment ; while the British Ambassador at Constant
inople stated, in reply to an enquiry by the Foreign Office, that the Resi
dent's usefulness had not in his opinion been diminished because, though
Basrah had been removed from the Baghdad Wilayat, a British Consul
existed there who corresponded with and acted under the Consul-General
at Baghdad. Sir W. White also remarked : " The Sublime Porte does
" not recognise the jurisdiction of a Consular Officer outside of the single
"Wilayat in which he is appointed to reside, for which he holds a Burat
« exequatur ; and Her Majesty 's Embassy has never succeeded in obtaining
"any deviation from this hard-and-fast rule since it was laid down. "
The following were the orders on the case finally communicated to
Sir W. White by the Marquis of Salisbury in March 1888.
Colonel Tweedie is probably not aware of the objections that would certainly be
raised by the Porte to the recognition of this title, inasmuch as, according to diplo
matic precedent, it might be taken to imply that the chief authority of the district in
which the Consul-General resides has a semi-independent position similar to that of the
former Princes of Servia or Houmania, or of the present Khedive of Egypt 01 1 rince of
Bulgaria.
So long as the Political Agent was the representative not of the British Govern
ment, nor a branch of that Government, but of the East India Company, this objection
did not apply with the same force.
There can be no doubt, however, that in former times the Governors of the distant
provinces of the Empire did, in fact, hold a position of far gieatei^ independence t an
is now the case. The progress of centralisation in the admin is tiation of the t omaai
Empire has of late years been very marked ; and there is a continual tendency to limi
the authority of the provincial Governors and to bring them into moie compe
dependency on the Government at Constantinople. There is, as Your xce ency
more than once noticed, a no less marked increase of jealousy of foreign m e ^ >
of the privileges and immunities of the foreign Consulates, and o t e n, s p
tection which they have acquired by agreement or usage.
These symptoms, which Colonel Tweedie seems to imagine to be personal 1 ' •
are equally observable in other parts of Turkish dominions , an no a