File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’ [188r] (375/630)
The record is made up of 1 item (315 folios). It was created in 1905-1911. 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. .
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- t he J^ yopet liy of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
(No. 345.)
(Telegraphic.) P. Constantinople, October 31, 1909.
LYNCH concession.
With reference to yonr telegram No. 688 of the 29th October, 1 saw the Grand
Vizier and the Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday, and spoke most emphatically on
the lines of your instructions.
They both appeared to be far less hopeful of bringing the matter to a conclusion
before the opening of Parliament on the 14th November than they were on the occasion
of the Ambassador’s interview with them on the 21st instant. The Minister of Finance
and the Minister for Foreign Affairs assert that the matter will have to be put before
the Chamber. Sassoon and other deputies of Bagdad are chiefly responsible for the
opposition to the scheme. They have organised a formidable campaign in Young
Turk circles, and have succeeded in making it appear as though Lynch’s scheme,
together with the projected British railways and the irrigation scheme, were the
prelude to political designs on Mesopotamia and in Arabia in the future. They appear
to he backed by Germans, and there are fairly conclusive indications that the same
line is being taken by French financiers who are closely connected with the Deutsche
Bank, and whose attitude is due to their annoyance at the opposition of the National
Bank in the matter of the loan.
The question will be deliberated on at the Conned of Ministers to-day, and Rifaat
Pasha
An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
will communicate the result to me to-morrow.
ASIATIC TURKEY AND ARABIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[October 31.]
Skction 1.
[39950]
Mr. Marling to Sir Edward Grey.—{Received October 31.)
/
About this item
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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 ).
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- IOR/L/PS/10/88/2
- Title
- File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’
- Pages
- 1r:2v, 5r:16v, 19r:21v, 23r:23v, 25r:27v, 29r:31v, 33r:46v, 48r:53v, 58r:67v, 70r:70v, 72r:73v, 75r:75v, 78r:80v, 82r:82v, 84r:84v, 96r:102v, 104r:107r, 108v:114v, 116r:123v, 125r:126v, 132r, 137r:139r, 141r:141v, 143r:143v, 145r:148v, 152r:165r, 167r:170v, 173r:175v, 178r:180v, 182r:183v, 185r:189v, 190v, 193r:199v, 201r:205v, 207r:217v, 221r:233r, 235r:257v, 258v:270v, 272r:276r, 278r:279v, 292r:315v
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- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
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