Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎114r] (227/290)

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s Government. j
Printed for the Foreign Office. March 1920.
SECRET.
I.D.C.E. (Sub-Committee),
2nd Minutes.
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS.
Sub-Committee on Mesopotamian Ports, Surveys and Inland
Water Transport.
'Minutes of a Meeting held at the Foreign Office on 'Tuesday, March 10, 1920, at 3 p.m.
Present :
Sir John Tilley, K.C.M.G., Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
(in the Chair).
Mr. L. Wakely, 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. .
Mr. C. C. Garrett, C.I.E., 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. .
Mr. R. V. Vernon, Treasury.
Major H. W. Young, D.S.O., Foreign Office.
Captain Hough, Department of Overseas
Trade.
Mr. C. M. Patrick, Foreign
Major-General R. S. May, C.B., C.M.G.,
D.S.O., Director of Movements, War
Office.
Major P. C. S. Hobart, D.S.O., O.B.E.,
M.C., War Office (General Staff).
Colonel A. S. Redman, C.B., War Office
(Deputy Director of Railways).
Office (Acting Secretary).
Ports. Mr. Garhett stated that the 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. were prepared to agree
to the recent taking over of the port by the civil administration
subject to War Office and Treasury approval. Reports showed that
affairs were in a satisfactory condition and the port might be
expected to be self-supporting in a very short time.
Mr. Vernon agreed to the port being handed over provided that
it was a self-supporting concern, but if a question of capital payment
were involved, Treasury decision must be reserved. He wished to
know r if the port formed a Department of the civil administration, or
whether it were independent of the administration.
Mr. Garhett replied that, while some powers would be delegated
to the port authority, it would definitely come under the civil
administration. The proclamation under which it was created was
based on the enactment creating the Karachi Port trust. Ihe
revenues were employed to meet its own expenses on such items as
buoyage, &c., and while it was intended it should pay its way it
wmuld not show a surplus.
The Chairman asked whether it was intended to include Arabs
in the port administration.
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