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'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations' [73v] (152/540)
The record is made up of 1 volume (268 folios). It was created in 24 Oct 1911-26 Dec 1912. It was written in English, French and Arabic. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
should be emphasised, and that the continuation to Koweit should be characterised as
a branch line in the further negotiations with Turkey.
(f.) Proposed construction and control of the port at Bussorah hy the new railway
company in the interests of the unrestricted commerce of all nations.
Turkey ignores, in her reply, the question of the construction and control of the
terminal port at Bussorah.
The Turkish delegates did, however, intimate to us verbally that Turkey would
agree to the construction of the port at Bussorah by the new company. They did
not mention control; and probably such measures as police control would have to
remain, as at present, in Turkish hands. But it is desirable that control of the port
should be entrusted to the proposed riverain commission.
2.—Political and Territorial Questions.
(See map annexed.)
(a.) El Katr.
Here there is complete divergency between the Turkish and the British point
of view.
The Turkish Government have maintained a post at El Bidaa for 40 years; and
the Turkish Delegates have emphasised the difficulty there would be in reconciling
parliamentary opinion to the abandonment of territory which Turkey has never formally
renounced; and they represented that such a surrender would be particularly difficult to
justify at a time when public opinion is smarting under the loss of Tripoli. They there
fore urged that British interests might be reconciled with a consolidation of Turkish
dominion in El Katr; but from this view the British Resident in the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
and
the Government of India emphatically dissent.
It appears to us that there is nothing in the Turkish agreement that would justify
His Majesty's Government in abandoning one iota of the claims advanced in the memo
randum of July 1911, seeing that an important object, in embarking on a settlement of
Gulf questions was to eliminate the Turks from the peninsula.
We consider that His Majesty's Government should protest energetically against
the Turkish attempt to whittle away the assurances (see Annexe I) given by the
Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs to Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople,
and repeatedly given, to the effect that Turkey did not entertain any intention of
obtaining the supremacy over Bahrein, Muscat, and the independent tribes on the coast
of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
; though Turkey did (in the person of Midhat
Pasha
An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
) argue that
there were no independent tribes in Nedjd.
(b.) Bahrein.
The Turkish reply on this point is, we think, fairly satisfactory. We understood
from the Turkish delegates that Turkey is prepared to agree to Bahreinis having
British Consular protection in Turkey, but not rights under the Capitulations, and
this appears a reasonable attitude.
(c). Zakhnuniyeh Island.
According to the Turkish delegates this isle is connected at low tide with the
mainland. It is^ however opposite a portion of the mainland which is south of Ojeir, the
most southerly limit to which His Majesty's Government have ever recognised Turkish
influence, and this attempt to establish themselves on the island seems to date only
from 1909.
(d.) Koweit.
The Turkish reply evades a direct answer to much that was written in the British
memorandum of July 1911.
We consider that no useful purpose would be served by entering into a controversy
as to past history, and that it would be expedient to reply to the Turkish Government
that, while His Majesty's Government cannot accept or admit the justice of the
Turkish contentions, they would be glad to learn whether the Turkish Government are
About this item
- Content
The volume contains letters, telegrams, and memorandums pertaining to Anglo-Turkish negotiations brought on by the Baghdad Railway and particularly the extension to Basra. Correspondents include: Percy Cox, Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. at Bushire, William Shakespear, Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Kuwait, Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Louis Mallet, Assistant Under-secretary of State for Near and Middle Eastern Affairs, Charles Marling, British Ambassador to Persia, Gerard Lowther, British Ambassador to Constantinople, George Buchanan, British Ambassador to Russia, Admiral Edmond Slade, the Board of Trade, the Government of India, the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , and several private companies, including Trans-Atlantic Trust Company, Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Imperial Ottoman Bank, and Imperial Persian Bank.
The form of the negotiations was a series of memorandums containing proposals and counter-proposals. The issues and subjects discussed are:
- ownership and control of the line;
- custom duty increases in the region;
- navigation of the Shatt al-Arab, including the establishment of a commission to oversee this;
- transport of railway materials by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers;
- delimitation of the Turkish-Persian border;
- status and territorial limit of Kuwait;
- other Gulf matters, including the statuses of Bahrain and Qatar, the suppression of arms traffic, piracy, and slavery, and the protection of pearl fisheries.
Folios 261-262 are a map showing the proposed territorial limits of Kuwait.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (268 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged chronologically. At the beginning (ff. 3-4) is a subject index, in no particular order but grouped under several broad headings. The numbers refer to folio numbers from the secondary, earlier sequence.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: The volume is foliated from the front cover to the inside back cover, using circled pencil numbers positioned in the top-right corner of each recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. . There are two earlier foliation systems running through parts of the volume. The first uses uncircled pencil numbers in the top-right corner of recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. pages, and the top-left corner of verso The back of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'v'. pages. This foliation system numbers pages if they have content on them, which is the case for all rectos and some versos. This foliation system appears intermittently through most of the volume. The other foliation system uses circled blue pencil numbers in the top-right corner of recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. pages, and appears from folios 5 to 42. Numerous printed materials contained in the volume have their own internal pagination systems. The following foliation irregularities occur: 1a, 34a, 51B, 219B, 250B.
- Written in
- English, French and Arabic in Latin and Arabic script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/R/15/1/611
- Title
- 'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 1ar:1av, 2r:5v, 16r:22v, 24r:34v, 34ar:34av, 35r:42v, 44r:49v, 51r:51v, 51br:51bv, 52r:54v, 56r:63v, 66r:67v, 72r:112r, 113r:134v, 136r:168v, 170r:182v, 184r:204r, 205v:213v, 215v, 219br:219bv, 222r:225v, 227r:236v, 238r:250v, 250br:250bv, 251r:261v, 262v:264v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence