'File 14/115 VII Annex (B 9) Abu Musa oxide: collected background material on the case' [‎12r] (34/1904)

17
woiifr J 0 £SS 'fi wreement w
thMthe LieS"Z Bmhne o, whom
i ll rt 110(1 engagements with hi ml
'dm t Z^T^rvJ"" "? v*r* °< ' le w
com, as a matter of fact, did complain that Hasan had entered into the contract
without consulting him and had refused to give him a copy of the docLeS Sie
to letters of (<) August 23rd 1906 and (») 17th October WOeLludedW^su m,¥
tai Ut7Lid\ c'onld? 8 ' "W". - to whatcfuLheldd
S!\r A coul( i 1 es P ress no opmion without seeing his deed of partnership
fta? Ume had n,T abl t ^ Mr -Mflcolm is'almost stone bLd, and £
j had juet got rid of his Persian clerk aud' was consequently unab 1 e
r-^r y 0 ft P f pe ^ aring 011 tlle P recise terms of his partnership in the
^ T £ S k was for this reason, namely, that we had not seen his papers, that
the British Memorandum only referred so briefly to his connection with the
concern.
He tas since found the deed of'partnership, and I now append a translation of
it (Annex 33). It proves of considerable importance and shows that his position
nke .hat of ISakhoda All, was one of absolute equality among the partners se.
{■55) No doubt HasanSamaiyeh ought
agreement was vn German. —After making; this casual observation the German
rejoinder goes on to endeavour to explain away or belittle Hasan Samaiyeh's tactics
m concealing the text of the contract from the knowledge of his partners. They
were demonsttated sufficiently clearly in the summary of Hasan's correspondence
submitted by me with the material for our first Memorandum on 1st March 1908.
and under item 7 of that Memorandum. There can be no doubt of Hasan Samai
yeh s sustained endeavours, all through, to suppress the plain fact of the mono
poly or so to gloze over it that it would not be noticed. While the German ami-
menthere makes out that it was only Malcolm (as a possible rival in his capacity
of Stock's Agent) whom Hasan wanted to keep in the dark, it would appear from
Hasan's letter to Malcolm, dated October 14th 1906, that it was in reality Abdul
Latif from whom he was auxious to conceal the terms of the contract for he
wrote to Malcolm '
" ^ truth it is not my intention that any one should come to know about it
except myself and you (Enclosure 14, British Memorandum.)
The reasons for his persevetence in withholding from Abdul Latif the precise
terms of the contract were obvious. He had been repeatedly warned by Abdul
Latif thatj while thete was no Objection to the mere Bale of the stuff to any body,
he should not commit himself to any deed or formal contract without consulting
him, and he (Hasan) knewSsIl enough that both the execution and the terms of
the document in which he had bound himself would be objected to by Abdul Latif
directly he saw them. To discount this opposition from Abdul Latif, his obvious
Course was to postpone the deliver}? of the copy and the objections of Abdul Latif as
long as possible, so that he could then plead that the contract had been in opera
tion now to such an extent that it was impossible to go back on it. This is ptecise-
ly the line he took. Thus, writing to Malcolm on 9th May 1907, he said : A long
period has elapsed since I made the contract with the German, and I have been
engaged in doing the work, our labourers have been working there and heavy ex
penses have been incurred * * * They did not make any objection all the
time " ! That the execution of such an instrument was incompatible with Abdul
Latif's repeated injunctions and Hasan's own protestations is clearly demonstrated
by the correspondence submitted on 1st March 1908. Among the latter I would !
C205 FD