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File 2249/1915 Pt 4 ‘Oil: Mesopotamia & Persia. (General File) 1920–24’ [‎35r] (69/484)

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The record is made up of 1 item (242 folios). It was created in 1 Nov 1919-20 May 1924. 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. .

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(?9
Paraphrase telegram froll tiite,"high; Cormnisuioner of Iraq
^ -* -■ -v» «»sa-a^ a.
to the Secretary of etate for the Colonies.
Dated 14th December*
(Kecei'ved colonial Office 11*40 p*m* 14th December 1921)
ho* ?Q7 Diala refinery site*
1 have received from King through his Private
Secretary a letter effect of which is that provided
that Company will make a firm offer proposals outlined
in third paragraph of my telegram ho* 726 November 25th
then Iraq Government will immediately grant necessary
facilities*
Can authority now he granted me to act as
suggested in section one of my fifth paragraph and
secondly Apoc be advised immediately to offer through me
t©2ms Outlined m .paragraph three*
1 beg for i-n early aeciaion as it is most
important that we should not shllly shaily in these
negotiations arid that we should seize favourable moment
before iUaerican intSigue or com petition can damage us.
i
i
&—>

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The item comprises correspondence and other papers concerning oil exploration in territories that were part of the Ottoman Empire prior to the First World War. The item includes: reports on exploratory drilling being undertaken by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) at Naft Khana [Nafţ Khānah], in territory transferred from Persia [Iran] to Mesopotamia [Iraq] in 1914 in response to recommendations made by the Turco-Persian Boundary Commission; the question of whether APOC drilling activity at Naft Khana should be paid for out of military funds, given Britain’s military occupation and administration of Mesopotamia during and after the First World War; oil concessions in Mesopotamia in relation to the San Remo Oil Agreement (1920), signed between the British and French Governments; a 1920 survey report by the APOC geologist, William Robert Smellie, entitled ‘Oil in relation to Fars anticlines’ (ff 132-139), and a response by the Officiating Director of the Geological Survey of India, Edwin Hall Pascoe, that disagrees with Smellie’s findings (ff 100-101); British Government policy on mining and oil prospecting in Palestine; and correspondence exchanged between representatives of the Government of the United States and the Foreign Office, relating to the refusal to permit American companies to conduct oil surveys in Mesopotamia.

The item’s principal correspondence are: the Foreign Office; HM Petroleum Executive, the Civil Commissioner in Baghdad, Arnold Talbot Wilson; and representatives of the Government of the United States.

The item includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

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1 item (242 folios)
Written in
English in Latin script
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File 2249/1915 Pt 4 ‘Oil: Mesopotamia & Persia. (General File) 1920–24’ [‎35r] (69/484), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/557/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100076914801.0x000051> [accessed 20 February 2025]

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