File 2249/1915 Pt 4 ‘Oil: Mesopotamia & Persia. (General File) 1920–24’ [‎47v] (94/484)

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Majesty’s Government, and I am sure I can say the same of all the Powers concerned,
deeply regretted th.t they had to face the very difficult problems presented by the
Turkish peace settlement without the counsel and assistance of the United states
Government But the responsibility for this state of things is not theirs, and it is
impossible for them to admit any suggestion that the United States Government has
been debarred by the action of the Powers concerned from participation in th
discussion of the consequences of the late conflict. .
6 . The terms of the mandates in particular have, in accordance with the Uovenan
now been submitted to the Council of the League, and it is a madter for the Council to
decide whether they should be published at this stage. It is difficult to understand on
what grounds the United States Government, in view of its refusal to take part in the
deliberations not only of the Supreme Council when considering the Turkish settlement,
but also of the Council of the League, can now properly require the terms of the
/ mandates to be communicated to it for its consideration. ,
7 I will now deal with the specific points raised in Mr. Colby s note with regard
to the concessions of the Turkish Petroleum Company and the San Remo Oil
Agreement. Prior to the war the position in regard to the Mesopotamian oilfields was
as follows :—
The concessions for all the oilfields of the two vilayets (provinces) of Mosul and
Bagdad were bestowed by the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid on his Civil List m 1888 and
1898 respectively, and private enterprise had long been debarred thereby from acquiring
any oil rights in those particular districts. This situation was so far admitted and
recognised that in 1904 the Anatolian Railway Company, nominally a 1 urkish company,
but in reality a German concern, obtained a contract from the Civil List by which the
company undertook to carry out preliminary surveys of the oilfields and seemed the
option for their development on joint account.
8 . The Civil List in 1906, considering the agreement with the Anatolian Company
at an end, entered into negotiations with a British group with a view to the development
of the oilfields. These negotiations, which had the full support of His Majesty s
Ambassador at Constantinople, continued during the year 1907 ; they were suspended
during the political crisis which broke out in 1908, but were resumed m 1909 with the
Turkish Ministry of Finance, to which Department the Mesopotamian oil concession
had been transferred from the Civil List, as one of the consequences of the deposition
of the Sultan Abdul Hamid. The general upheaval caused by the events of 1908
impeded the progress of the negotiations during the year 1910 and 1911.
9 . In 1912 endeavours were mode by German interests to obtain the confirmation^
by the Turkish Government of the arrangements concluded in i904 between the
Anatolian Railway Company and the Sultan’s Civil List, and, with the apparent object
of pursuing the matter and of widening the scope of tffiir activity in oil operations in
other parts of the Turkish Empire, they formed a British limited liability company
called the Turkish Petroleum Company (Limited), the capital of which was partly
British and partly Geiman. < . . .
10 . This development was succeeded by a series of negotiations entered into
between the British group and members of the Turkish Petroleum Company for the
amaLamation of the rival interests and for pursuing jointly the application before the
Turkish Government for the grant of a concession for the Mesopotamian oilfields.
These negotiations, in which the British and German Governments took an active
interest, terminated in the early part of 1914, when an agreeement was reached for the
fusion of the interests of the original Turkish Petroleum Company and of the original
British group in the new Turkish Petroleum Company. This agreement was signed not
only by the parties immediately interested, but also on behalf of the British and German
Governments respectively, the German share m this new company w^s fixed at
25 per cent. ,
11 . In consequence of this arrangement, His Majesty s Ambassador at Constanti
nople was able to make 1 the necessary repre entations to the Turkish Government for
the grant to the Turkish Petroleum Company of the oil concessions in the vilayets of
Mosul and Bagdad, while representations of the »ame nature were made simultaneously
to the Porte by the German Ambassador. As a result the Turkish Government, on the
28th June, 19 i 4 , through the Grand Vizier, informed His Majesty’s Ambassador, in an
official communication, that the Turkish Ministry of finance having been substituted
for the Civil List in the matter of the petroleum deposits known or to be discovered in
the vilayets of Mosul and Bagdad, had consented to lease the said deposits to the
Turkish Petroleum Company, the Ministry reserving the right to fix later on its share