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File 3877/1912 Pt 3 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [270r] (305/372)
The record is made up of 1 part (184 folios). It was created in 16 Mar 1914-25 Nov 1915. It was written in English and French. 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.
f v W
^ [This Docu iient is the Property; of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
'URKEY.
CONFIDENTIAL.
! May 7. j
Section 2.
[20259] No. 1.
Admiralty to Foreign Office.—(Received May 7.)
(Confidential.)
Sir, Admiralty, May 6, 1914.
WITH reference to the agreement of the 19th March, 1914, arranged in conference
at the Foreign Office for the fusion of the interests in Turkish petroleum concessions
of the D’Arcy group and the Turkish Petroleum Company, I am commanded b}’ my
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to request that you will acquaint the Secretary
of State that they have been verbally informed that the Anglo-Persian Oil Company
intend to find the capital amounting to 100,000k for the holding company proposed
to be registered to hold the D’Arcy group’s shares in the Turkish Petroleum
Company.
2. If the proposal is finally approved by the directors of the Anglo-Persian Oil
Company the decision will necessarily be taken, as the matter is an urgent one, before
His Majesty’s Government subscribe for shares in that company and are represented
on the Board of Directors, but it appears probable that except possibly the first
instalment of Is. per share, the actual payments out of the funds of the company will
be made subsequently to the Government becoming financially interested therein under
the agreement which is now reaching its final stages. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company
contemplate issuing the necessary funds by way of loan to some four persons—including
two of the present directors of the company—on the understanding that the shares,
together with blank transfers for the same, shall be lodged with the Anglo-Persian
Oil Company. The amount of share capital to he taken in the Turkish Petroleum
Company by the D’Arcy group under paragraph 3 of the agreement above referred to
is 80,000k, but it is understood that further capital of about 20,000k is proposed to be
provided for general working expenses of the holding company, and also to meet the
contingency of a possible increase in the capital of the Turkish Petroleum Company.
Four thousand of the shares, however, are to be subscribed for on behalf of
M. Gulbenkian with financial interest only—those shares to remain registered in the
name of the holding company. Ten thousand of the shares are proposed to be allotted
fully paid.
3. Assuming that the arrangements indicated in paragraphs 5 to 7 of the
agreement prove adequate for the subsequent raising by subsidiary companies fully
controlled by the Turkish Petroleum Company of the necessary capital for the
actual working of the concessions, and that the capital of the Turkish Petroleum
Company will not be increased (if at all) to such an extent that the D Arcy
proportion cannot be provided out of the 20,000k above referred to, it would
appear that the sum advanced bv the Anglo-Persian Oil Company will be limited to
86,000k
4. As regards the financial risks which might be incurred by the Anglo-Persian
Oil Company, it appears to my Lords that this must be taken as part of the general
risk of that company’s enterprise. The Deutsche Bank (and formerly the National
Bank of Turkey), the Shell group, and the D’Arcy group, who possess between them
considerable expert knowledge of oilfields in general and of the possibilities of the
Mesopotamian concessions in particular, have all been extremely desirous of partici
pating in the exploitation of those concessions. This may lie taken as fair evidence
that the prospects of success are reasonably good. .
5. The important point arises whether the loan of funds by the Anglo-Persian Oil
Company, in which His Majesty’s Government are about to acquire rathei more than
half the share capital, may present any difficulty from the foreign Office standpoint
6. The view which my Lords have always taken of the D Arcy claim to a shaie of the
Mesopotamian oil concessions has been that not only was the claim deserving of the
support of His Majesty’s Government on the ground that that group were pioneers m
that particular field, but also that whether large supplies of oil from Mesopotamia may
or may not eventually be required for naval purposes, the maintenance of B lltls
control in the Mesopotamian field would be beneficial to the operations of the * ng o-
Persian Oil Company, or conversely that foreign control in Mesopotamia mig it prove
[2136 0—2]
CCDV VO
, * k A
2 MAY 1914/.
About this item
- Content
The volume is a chronological continuation of File 3877/1912 Pt 2 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ (IOR/L/PS/301), and comprises papers concerning ongoing negotiations over oil concessions for the Mesopotamian vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad, in which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), Deutsche Bank, the British-backed National Bank of Turkey, and the Anglo-Saxon Oil Company (ASOC, a division of Royal Dutch Shell) are the principal claimants. The principal correspondents include: the Director of APOC (Charles Greenway); Foreign Office officials (Sir Louis Du Pan Mallet; Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe); the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey); the Admiralty (William Graham Greene).
The papers cover:
- correspondence dated 1914 regarding a claim made by Roland H Silley, represented in the correspondence by his solicitors Treherne, Higgins and Company, to concessionary rights in Mesopotamia;
- proposals for APOC to represent the D’Arcy Group, the original British claimants to oil concession rights in Mesopotamia;
- an agreement made between representatives of the British and German Governments, the National Bank of Turkey, ASOC, Deutsche Bank and the D’Arcy Group (APOC), dated 19 March 1914, for the ‘Fusion of Interests in Turkish Petroleum Concessions of the D’Arcy Group and of the Turkish Petroleum Company’ (f 271);
- efforts, in late October and November 1914, to maintain the agreement of 19 March 1914, in spite of Britain now being at war with Turkey, including a letter from Greenway, dated 2 November 1914, stressing the importance of carrying through the concessions arrangements without delay (ff 156-161);
- a minute, with no indication of author, dated January 1915 which offers a concise précis of the history of oil concessions in Mesopotamia, and the background to the agreement of 19 March 1914 (f 143);
- in 1915, discussion amongst Foreign Office officials over the validity of the agreement signed on 19 March 1914, in response to events of the First World War.
- Extent and format
- 1 part (184 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/302/1
- Title
- File 3877/1912 Pt 3 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’
- Pages
- 118r:146v, 148r:151v, 154r:155v, 162r:164v, 170r:174v, 176r:177v, 179r:180v, 184r:185v, 187r:189v, 191r:195v, 198r:206v, 210r:211v, 213r:228r, 229r:245v, 248r:249v, 252r:270v, 271ar:271av, 272r:273v, 275r:278v, 280r:281v, 284r:290v, 292r:299v, 301r:302v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence