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File 3877/1912 Pt 3 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ [291v] (350/372)
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.
Government, and an agreement was prepared and is still under discussion with
Hakki
Pasha
An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
.
This agreement does not aftect any questions in which Mr. Silley’s interests are
concerned. It is stipulated that certain*British claims respecting the transfer of th
“ permis de recherches ” for petroleum in the Farsan archipelago shall be respected
Had Mr. Sdley approached His Majesty’s Government prior to July 1913 with reo-ard
to his claim, it might have been possible for His Majesty’s Government to have
inserted in their draft agreement with the Turkish Government stipulations as to
Mr. Silley’s mining rights in the vilayets of Basra and Nejd, but it is too late to do so
now, as His Majesty’s Government cannot possibly go back on the terms of the
agreement which has been agreed, even although details of drafting are still under
discussion.
Generally speaking the policy of His Majesty’s Government is, so far as possible
to use their influence to prevent oil concessions getting in the hands of groups or
syndicates other than British. His Majesty’s Government have for several years urged
the lurkish Government to give the concession in Mosul and Bagdad to Mr. D’Arcy.
1 hey cannot now support a claim against them in consequence of compliance with their
His Majesty’s Government state that they cannot support Mr. Silley’s claims in
respect of prospecting licences, options, and concessions in the provinces of Mosul and
-Bagdad. Seeing that the Turkish Government have granted Mr. Silley the interests
referred to in these provinces, it would appear, in the opinion of his London solicitors
that he has some claim for compensation against the Turkish Government in consequence
of the monopoly which they have now given to the Turkish Petroleum Company
With regard to any such claims for compensation, the Foreign Office state that the
c ance o ge ing any such claim for compensation admitted is extremely remote.
As regards Mr. Silley’s rights in the vilayets of Basra and Nejd, His Majesty’s
Government wdl be prepared to support him in respect of these claims, provided he
gi es a written undertaking in the form required by His Majesty’s Embassy at
Constantinople If an undertaking in the form requested is given His Majesty s
Government will be prepared not only to support him but, in the event of his
arranging to make over his rights to the Turkish Petroleum Company to use their
influence o enable him to obtain fair and proper prices for them, P according to thefe
proved value and, in the event of failure to obtain such prices, not opposf him in
Ma^esty^Governmfnf 8 ^ ^sh-controlled companies P But His
Majesty s Government can express no opinion as to the value of Mr. Silley’s claims
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
- 291r:291v
- Author
- Treherne Higgins & Company
- Copyright
- ©This material is made available with the permission of Fieldfisher LLP
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence