'File 73/7 III (D 24) Status of Kuwait & Anglo-Turkish negotiations' [‎176r] (363/709)

■ii — i
I 8 I (>
m]
LA]
ASIATIC TURKEY AND ARABIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[May 21.j
Section 5.
235451
No. 1.
tr ^
Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Bertie*
(No. 322.)
' . T ^ Foreign Office, May 21, 1913.
1 EXr LAIN ED to the French and Russian Ambassadors to-day the position about
the Bagdad Railway. W e had made up our minds that nothing could prevent the
lailway from going to Basra, and we had decided that the point for us to safeguard
<is that the status quo in the Persian CVidf should not be disturbed. An agreement,
ad referendum, had therefore been drawn up with a representative of the Turkish
Government, under which there were provisions about Koweit, Bahrein, El Katr, and
so forth, for socuiiiig the status quo in the-Persian. (rulf, provisions about the navigation
of the Shatt-el-Arab, and a stipulation that the Bagdad Railway should not go beyond
Basra without our consent. We had not claimed participation in the Bagdad Railway,
but were to have two directors on the board of the railway from Konieh to Basra.'
These diiectors would, ol course, not be able to exercise control, but they would be
able to see that, in practice as well as in theory, there was no differentiation of rates on
British goods. They would be able to let us know if any such differentiation did take
place, in which case we should make diplomatic representations.
Since we had made this arrangement with Ifakki Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the German Government
had begun to speak to us on the subject. Apparently, they were entitled to claim from
Turkey that the Bagdad Railway should, in one way or another, be continued to the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and they said that, therefore, Turkey could not forgo without their
consent the right to make the railway from Basra to the Gulf. But this consent they
were willing to give if there was no opposition to the railway being made to Basra, and
if they could be assured that the financial guarantees for making the line up to Bagdad,
which would be lost by the cession of Turkish territory in Europe to the allies, would
be replaced, and if further guarantees were secured to carry the line on to'Basra.
This was a matter that would come before the Financial Commission in Pans, and 1
could not commit myself to the German Government without first discussing the matter
with the French and Russian Governments. We were now satisfied that, if the railway did
not go beyond Basra, we need not regard it as being prejudicial to British interests, and
we need not oppose it.
The French Ambassador was under the impression that we had secured the right
to build the section from Basra to the Gulf, and had been offered the Bagdad-Kanikin
branch.
I assured him that this was not so. We had not acquired any right to build any
section, and we had no participation. It was true that something had been said by an
unauthorised German to Mr. Lynch, who was also an unauthorised person, as far as
these negotiations were concerned, about giving us the branch from Bagdad to Kanikin.
But 1 had discouraged any idea of such a proposal being brought into the discussion,
as it seemed to me to affect the arrangement that Russia had made at Potsdam an
arrangement that was connected with the Kanikin branch.
I am, &c,
E. GREY.
Also to Mr. O'Beirne (No. 205).
[2917 x—5]