'File 73/7 I (D 19) Status of Kuwait & Baghdad Railway, and Anglo-Turkish negotiations 1911' [‎170r] (373/631)

-[This Djcun?sntJ^jthe_ foopcrty of His Britann ic Majesty's Govermnent!
EASTEUN DEPAR TMBNT.
SECRET SERIES.
[March 27.1
[A mended Coi 'y.l
[11080]
No. 1.
S ection 1,
ly
Sir G, Lowther to Sir Edward Grey.— {Received March 27,)
(No. 183. Confidential.)
Sir, y
WITH rpfprpTino fr. TV. + i "vr ' Consta ^ n oplei Maveh 22, Wll.
1 have the honnnr in >V ^ egrams .Nos. 62 arid 63 of the 18th March >and yesterday,
thp Otfn < ' ' enclose translations ol the conventions signed vesterdav between
the Ottoman Government and the Bagdad Railway Company respecting -
1. Phe Helif—Bagdad sections ;
o rL| le J ^ exari ■ ^ re tta~ Osinanie branch ; and
o. T he Alexandretta port.
^ ) W T e ; | 1CC ? rr!pailJ 1 e(J ky a declaration of the company renouncing its ri^ht
of whiXfhe \V t La f gda T ^~ Gulf ^ tion and the ports at Bnssorah and the terminus
AffairS pr0miSeS t0 give me details to-morrow. The
£T 400 000 n! 1 vl om( tnc ^ ua ! aritee arj! - working expenses amounts roughly to
/•'l 9 6 the surplus receipts assigned in virtue of paragraphs 1 and 2 of
returns'" ie £ T ^DOOrO ? yeS l? rday yi f d about £ T - 405 ' 000 ' according to the latest
: k i.e. I l _J(j ,0(j0 irom the surpUis tithes earmarked lor the Haidar Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. -
L^kishehir- Angora-Xonia-Eregh sections, and some £ T. 115,000 from the ceded
revenues surplus lor the Bulgurlu-Helif sections, as shown in the annexed table.
f 1t ( r?! in T, t0 ^cles 3 and 4, the company undertakes to complete the sections
om ' \ 0 . I | >a ^ dad Wlt | im live years from the date of approval of the plans and
VVa n^ 1 are t0 r f P re P a l red and approved within fourteen months from
•' • ', % 'accomplish this there is a natural desire to set to work as soon as
possible Irom both ends, and consequently a corresponding anxiety to lose no time in
coining to a haal settlement with England and France regarding the Bagdad-Gulf
sections.
regards the branch from Alexandretta to Osmanie, it is to be constructed
s\ itnout kiiometric guarantees and within two years from the date of approval of the
date^ 8 ' are t0 be P resen ted to the Ministry within nine months from the present
Like the port of Alexandretta, the termination of the concession is made to
synchronise with that of the section ending 200 kilom. east of Helif, i e in the
vicinity of Mosul. '
The plans for the port at Alexandretta are to be ready within fifteen months from
.■■-a n aj, ami the works are to be completed within four years of the date of their
appiovai. i Ins port is in a way a set-off against the Gulf port and that of Bussorah
giame( to the coiupany by the original firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). , but now relinquished, together with
their exclusive right to the Bagdad-Gulf sections of the railway.
1 am miormed that the German company also reserves to itself the right to come
to terms with the new company as to the indemnity to be paid by the latter to
compensate it for the loss suffered in not constructing that section.
Hussein x)jahid bey, in the lan:n, which is practically the organ of the Minister
of I mane.and otnei G oa eminent ojgans, express great pleasure at the conclusion of
these conventions, and the hope that they will lead to a similar settlement with Greatj
Biitain m the matter of the Gulf sections, Ivoweit, and 'other parts of Ottoman]
territory in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. " (the latter phrase may refer to Bahrein, Katar, &c.), but
the fact that the Government refuses to submit these conventions to the Chambeia;iJ
indicates that it anticipates considerable opposition to their conclusion. According
the Concession Law, which was the outcome of the "affaire Lynch," all concessionPf
involving a financial liability on the part of the Treasury must be submitted to the
Chamber, and it is certainly straining the interpretation of the preamble of the 1908
convention to maintain that the reallocation of the revenues assigned to the Haidar
• This table is inaccurate; see corrected one in Sir G. Lowther 's No. 190 of March 23, 1911.
[1932 dd~l] B