‘The Capitulations. What they are, and what effect their abolition will have upon the status of British subjects in Turkey, upon their interests, their liberties and upon British trade generally.’ [‎9v] (18/28)

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title to real estate, but including cases arising out of the letting of houses;
(d) the Ottoman Courts wherein alone a British subject can enforce a claim
to real estate.
H.BM. Supreme Court. This, Court which is now established by the
Ottoman Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. . 1910. has all the powers of the Court of
Justice in England. It is presided over by a qualified English judge and
parties to proceedings therein have substantially the same t'shts to trial by
Jury as in England save that the jury consists of five jurors It has unlimited
jurisdiction. In certain cases there is an appeal to a full Court composed
of the Judges of the Court in Egypt and of the Court in the Ottoman
Dominions, and. what is a still more important and valuable safeguard, there
is an appeal direct to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It is
submitted that this most valuable privilege should not be taken away from
the British Colony in Turkey without the substitution of some equally inde
pendent and reliable safeguard in its place.
II. The Corufular Courts. —The other Capitulatory Powers have their own
so-called Consular Courts, presided over by the Consuls who are in the
case of all the important Powers, qualified legal men. In the Italian Consular
Court there is an Italian judge independent of the Consul. In the case of
the important Powers, there is an appeal from the Consular Courts to some
tribunal in the Mother country, with the consequent right of appeal to the
Highest Tribunal of the Capitulatory Power. Similarly, it is not anticipated
that these rights will lightly be exchanged for some appeal to a local Court,
which must inevitably be more Turkish in its character than anything else.
III. The Provisional Mixed Judicial Commission. —This is a creation of
the Armistice, which the Angora Government are stated to have protested
against. It sits with three Judges, the President must always be a lurk.
The other two judges are taken from the judges of the H.B.M. Supreme
Court and of the Consular Judges of the Italian or French Consular Courts.
It is for the trial of cases between either British, French, Italian, Greek, or
Belgian nationals on the one side, and Ottoman subjects on the other, bo
far it is believed that attempts to induce other powers to assent to its jurisdiction
have not been successful. Its jurisdiction extends to civil commercial cases
and rent cases only, and so far it has not been concerned with any cases
approaching the gravity, importance or value of those normally dealt with
in the Supreme and Consular Courts. There :s no appeal whatever from its
decisions, other than by way of “ Requete Civile, which is very limited
except in its power to cause delay; and which Requete does not go to another
Tribunal, but to the same Tribunal as that which gave the judgment sought
to be attached. The law it applies is Turkish, its Procedure is Turkish based
upon the French law, and being presided over by a Turk its whole character
semains to a great extent Turkish. These courts have filled the place vacant
by the absence of what was known as the Tidjaret (Commercial) Court, which
sat before the war with Turkish judges, European Assessors, and the Dragoman
of the Embassy whose national was concerned.
IV. The Ottoman Courts.—The British subject has only to have recourse
to these Courts now for the purpose of obtaining redress where the title to
land is concerned. With their endless and expensive delays, Requetes Appeals,
etc., due to the incompetence of the judges, the manoeuvres of the Advocates
and the out-of-date procedure and antiquated law, they can only be described
as beneath contempt.
(Criminal.)
Apart from the Military and Naval Courts held under the authority
of the respective Commanders-in-chief, there is now only the British Supreme
Court and its subordinate Courts which have any criminal jurisdiction over
British subjects. Since the Armistice the Ottoman Courts have had no
criminal jurisdiction over foreigners at all. The Law administered in the
British Supreme Court is, so far as the circumstances admit, British law.