File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’

Content

Part 2 of the volume is comprised of copies of correspondence and other papers relating to the proposed merger of the Turkish-Government-operated Hamidieh Steamship Company and the British company, the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (also referred to as the Lynch Company, ETSNC). The item’s principal correspondents are: representatives of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (hereafter ETSNC, chiefly the Company Secretary, H W Maclean), the Director of the ETSNC (Henry Finnis Blosse Lynch); the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey); the Private Secretary to Sir Edward Grey (Louis Du Pan Mallet); the British Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul] (Sir Gerard Augustus Lowther); the 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. for Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. (Captain John Gordon Lorimer).

The majority of the correspondence is dated 1909 to 1910, and focuses on the controversial nature of the proposed merger of the two steamship operators, which bore more of the character of a takeover by the British concern of its Turkish counterpart. While many Turkish commentators understood the prospect of a likely British monopoly of navigation rights on the Tigris and Euphrates in Irak [Iraq], the British Government feared having their commercial activities in Iraq diminished, possibly to the advantage of competing German commercial interests. The controversy, which acquired the sobriquet the ‘Affaire Lynch’ in the British press, precipitated a local popular uprising in Iraq, and in part led to the resignation of the Grand Vizier Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , who had supported the merger, in December 1909. The correspondence is thus split between the contractual negotiations over the navigation concession, and the political consequences of its controversy, including cuttings of articles published in the press in Britain ( The Times , The Morning Post ) and copies of articles published in Ottoman Turkey ( Tanin , Truth ).

Extent and format

1 item (315 folios)

It is part of

File 3531/1905 Pt 1-2 ‘Mesopotamia’

788 images

Ref: IOR/L/PS/10/88

Written in

English and French in Latin script

Type

Archival item

Access & Reference

Original held at

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.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IOR/L/PS/10/88/2

History of this record

Date(s)

1905-1911 (CE, Gregorian)

Subjects

ImperialismSteamshipsConcessionsArab nationalism

Places

Iraq

People & organisations

Secretary of State for Foreign AffairsHM Ambassador to the Ottoman EmpirePolitical Resident and Consul-General, Turkish ArabiaEuphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company, DirectorPrincipal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

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File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/88/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100031558831.0x000002> [accessed 6 October 2024]

Link to this record

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