'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎214v] (426/501)

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OIL ENGINEERING AND FINANCE
February 17, 1923.
Mr. D’arcy’s chief competitors consisted of Ger
man interests, represented by M. Hugenin, of the Bag
dad Railway and the Deutsche Bank, who had the
support of the German Ambassador, and anothei
English Group which included powerful London finan
ciers, Mexican oil and South African gold mining
interests. Representatives of important French
bankers, in Constantinople, were also competitors.
All these groups applied to Sultan Abdul Hamid for
concessionary rights in the Mesopotamian oilfields,
either through their Embassies, or directly through
the Director of tha Sultan’s Privy Purse.
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 was followed
by the election of a National Assembly, and the adop
tion of a constitutional form of government, but the
Sultan’s right to deal with his own properties was not
questioned until 1909, when he was imprisoned by the
Young Turks at Salonika. We have been informed
by members of the Sultan’s family that he was con
tinually pressed, and even threatened when he refused,
by the Young Turk Government to sign legal trans
fers of all his property in favour of the Young Turk
* Government. This he refused consistently to do.
With the deposition of the Sultan, his brother,
Rechad, known as Sultan Mehmed, became the new
Sultan. By command of the Young Turk Govern
ment he signed an Imperial Order in 1909 authorising
the Turkish Ministry of Finance to take possession of
all properties acquired by the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid,
and specific mention was made of lands, steamship,
harbour, mining and oil concessions, acquired by him
from the date of his succession to the throne in 1877.
This was the second order regarding Sultan Abdul
Hamid’s properties issued since the advent of the
Young Turk Government. The first was signed in
1908 by Abdul Hamid himself, and as these two orders
have an important bearing on the whole question under
discussion, we will examine them both in some detail.
Sultan Dispossessed?
The first order of 1908 refers to certain debts and
to an accumulation of salaries owing to officials of the
Civil List Acfoninistration, and it states that in order
to liquidate these debts and to pay the official salaries
due, certain properties, expressly referred to in a
separate list, should be placed at the disposal of the
BAGDAD CONCESSION, 1898
OFFICIAL TRANSLATION.
Sublime Porte
Grand Vezirat
Imperial Chancery.
Imperial Firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). of Concession.
To My Illustrious Minister of My Imperial Private
Treasury Ohannes Effendi, decorated with the Orders First
Class of Med] idieh and Second Class of Osmanieh.
You have submitted for my Imperial sanction the pro
posal to grant to My Imperial Private Treasury the Conces
sion for the research and exploitation of the sources of
petroleum and naphtha in the Vilayet of Bagdad seeing that,
according to the terms of My Imperial Order in regard to it,
the concession for the research arid exploitation of petroleum
sources and naphtha in the Vilayet of MOUSSUL was
Turkish Government. The text appears to be quite
clear that the intention was to make over the proper
ties themselves, but the attached list does not make
this quite so clear, as it implies, in enumerating the
properties, that in some cases the properties are handed
over and in others only the revenues. This order, and
the list accompanying it, deal with landed properties
only, and no mention is made of any other kind of pro
perty. But there is an important consideration
attached to this transfer. The total amount owed by
the Sultan was somewhere about ;£!,000,000' (Turkish)
and the order provides that the properties transferred
shall be used for the purpose of obtaining a loan suffi
cient to cover this debt. The Ministry of Finance
itself was to negotiate this loan on the security of the
properties specified. We are informed, on good autho
rity, that this money was never paid by the Turkish
Ministry of Finance to the Civil List, but whether
this fact would invalidate the Sultan’s personal signa
ture to a transfer of property is a question which we
do not pretend to decide.
The second order, already referred to, and which
was signed in 1909, dispossessed Sultan Abdul Hamid
in one clean sweep of the whole of the properties
acquired by him during his lifetijme. In our search
for documentary evidence we were informed of this
Imperial Order, and that, as such, it was law and
would be included in the Law Summaries as is the
custom and practice in Turkey. It is a curious fact,
which we mention for what it is worth, that we were
unable to trace the order of 1909 in the Official Sum
mary 1 of Laws. The point is, however, that on the
issue of this order, or Irade, the whole of the docu
ments dealing with the properties acquired by Sultan
Abdul Hamid during his lifetime, were seized and
placed in the archives of the Ministry of Finance which
took possession, however, only of such properties as
were situated within Young Turk zones of influence.
We have discussed this Irade, from the point of view
of law, with Turkish legal experts and we are in
formed that the Irade orders the “ taking possession ”
of these properties, and the words “ transfer ” or
“ confiscation ” are not mentioned.
It appears that a transfer of property under Tur
kish law is only valid when signed by the actual
owner of the property dealt with. Confiscation under
granted exclusively to My Private Treasury and seeing that
in the Vilayet of BAGDA1) are also found important sources
of petroleum and also that unless the management of the
sources occurring in the two Vilayets be combined it would
not be profitable.
My Imperial Irade has been promulgated in accordance
with the above, and in consequence of its high tenour My
present Imperial Order has been delivered by My Imperial
Chancery affirming that the Concession for the research and
exploitation of the sources of petroleum and naphtha to be
found in the Vilayet of BAGDAD is also granted exclusively
to My Imperial Private Treasury in the same way as that
granted for the Vilayet of MOUSSUL.
You, My Minister above-named will do what is neces
sary as regards My Private Treasury.
The 5th Djemaz ul Aker 1316 (1898). (Office of the Imperial
Chancery).
£1