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File 1421/1908 Pt 3 'Persia: oil; negotiations between the Shaikh of Mohammerah and the Anglo-Persian Oil Co.' [255v] (76/338)
The record is made up of 1 item (168 folios). It was created in Apr 1909-Jul 1919. It was written in English. 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.
2
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
Messrs. Lloyd, Scott, and Co. to Acting Consul Wilson.
Mohammerah, August 30, 1910.
WE have the honour to acknowledge and thank you for your letter of the
27th instant, contents of which we have carefully noted. We will submit your letter
to our directors for their consideration, but we have the following remarks to make in
connection therewith :—
So far as this company is concerned, his Excellency the Sheikh of Mohammerah
has no locus standi in the matter. The Persian Government sold in 1901 certain
rights and privileges to this company. As you are aware, a very heavy price was paid
for these. If, on the company proceeding to exercise these rights, obstruction is placed
in its way by a second party who claims that the Persian Government sold to him also
the same rights and at a heavy price, the company’s recourse against such obstructiou
lies not with that second party, but with the Persian Government.
This seems to us to be a case where the company must, if and when it becomes
necessary, rely on Tehran to accomplish its aims, looking to the fact that it merely seeks
to exercise a right bought from and paid for to the Persian Governnnent.
And such pressure can very well be brought to bear when it is borne in mind that
any claim for damages put forward by the company for failure of the Persian Govern
ment to secure for it free of obstruction all rights under its concession, can, if necessary,
be enforced by forfeiture of the share in profits to which the Persian Government would
in due course become entitled.
We are unaware what price his Excellency the Sheikh of Mohammerah paid in
1903 to the Persian Government for rights apparently sold in 1901 to the company, but
we think it very improbable that he gave a greater quid pro quo than the company
has done, so that however much his Excellency the sheikh claims that his rights must
be respected the company is in a very strong position to insist that its prior rights
must also be respected. Looking, however, to the fact that his Excellency the sheikh
did not claim mineral rights in June-July 1909, we think it unlikely that he will
claim them now.
It appears to us likely that had he seriously considered he had any claim to
mineral rights in June-July 1909, he would have produced his firmans at that time,
especially as you report that he had a general recollection that he had complete
rights.
We think you will agree that it would be very unlike his Excellency the sheikh
to give up anything that he thought he could legitimately claim or, possibly illegitimately
get by “ bluff.” Undoubtedly this company would expect to be compensated, if it were
necessary to pay a second time for what has already been purchased, but then the
company does not propose to act in any such manner.
We are instructed, as already advised you, that henceforth the directors propose to
act strictly on the lines of the concession. Paragraph 8, first sentence of your letter
appears to us to contain the crux of the position. You suggest financially interesting
his Excellency the sheikh in the prosperity of the wells at Ahwaz, if worked. The
company has already given an undertaking to make some amicable arrangement with
him in the event of oil being tapped (naturally in the commercially paying quantities,
as you presume), but that has nothing whatever to do with the company’s right under
its concession to prospect for oil at Ahwaz.
We cantiot agree with your remark that the company has been unhampered by the
slightest local opposition, but that is a matter into which we need not enter here. We
do not consider it necessary at all for the company to threaten his Excellency the sheikh
with the wrath of the central Government at Tehran. We consider it necessary to
threaten Tehran, and if and when the sheikh obstructs the company in exercising its
rights purchased from the central Government, our opinion being as first stated above,
that from the company’s point of view the sheikh has no locus staiidi in the matter.
We are sure the directors will give the subject-matter of your letter under
acknowledgment their very careful consideration, but their instructions to us indicate
the unlikelihood of their agreeing to pay anything to his Excellency the sheikh in
excess of the surface value of the land taken up for the purpose of working oil
at Ahwaz.
About this item
- Content
Part 3 consists of correspondence relating to an agreement between the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and Shaikh Khazal-Bin-Jaber [Khaz‘al bin Jābir bin Mirdāw al-Ka‘bī] of Mohammerah [Khorramshahr]. The correspondence is mostly between the Government of India (Foreign Department), Foreign Office, and 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. . Included as enclosures are letters, telegrams, and memoranda from the following:
- Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary;
- British Minister to Persia, Tehran;
- representatives of Anglo-Persian Oil Company;
- Percy Zachariah 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. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ;
- Shaikh Khazal of Mohammerah;
- Messrs Lloyd, Scott, and Co., agents of Anglo-Persian Oil Company in Mohammerah;
- Persian government officials;
- Arnold Talbot Wilson, Acting Civil Commissioner in Mesopotamia.
Several matters are covered by the papers, including:
- the negotiations over a loan to Shaikh Khazal by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company for the use of land on Abadan Island for an oil refinery;
- the question of what is to be done with company buildings on the island when the concession period ends;
- the nature of Shaikh Khazal's rights to the land in question;
- the Persian Government's exceptions to some of the terms of the agreement;
- the question of guards for the refinery and who will pay for them.
- Extent and format
- 1 item (168 folios)
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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File 1421/1908 Pt 3 'Persia: oil; negotiations between the Shaikh of Mohammerah and the Anglo-Persian Oil Co.' [255v] (76/338), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/144/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100030500368.0x000078> [accessed 9 March 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/144/1
- Title
- File 1421/1908 Pt 3 'Persia: oil; negotiations between the Shaikh of Mohammerah and the Anglo-Persian Oil Co.'
- Pages
- 255v:256r, 257v:258r, 264v, 274r:275r, 278v:279v, 282v:283r, 337r
- Author
- Lloyd, Scott & Co Ltd (Mohammerah)
- Copyright
- ©BP is believed to be the rightsholder
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence