'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎215v] (428/501)

‘’O'i
OIL ENGINEERING AND FINANCE
February 17, 1923.
Turkish law is allowed only in case of apostasy. To
obtain possession of these properties it was therefore
clearly necessary for the Turkish Government to resort
to an act of force, or to projmulgate in a constitutional
nanner a special law to enable the Turkish Go'vernment
to seize and confiscate property for reasons other than
those laid down in the Turkish criminal code. It has
been pointed out to us that no Turkish Constitutional
Assembly would endow a Government with powers
of this nature, and in fact the Young Turk Govern
ment did not attempt to obtain them. It is, therefore,
clear that as the Sultan refused to sign documents trans
ferring his property to the Turkish Government, the
Young Turks were obliged to carry out a simple act
of seizure. We are not sufficiently learned to give an
opinion as to whether every act of a Government ought
to be considered legal, but it might be argued that the
Turkish Government, having taken possession of these
properties, it was at liberty to dispose of them if pros
pective buyers would be content with new titles of
ownership that would have, of necessity, to be issued.
In Turkey the title to a property is determined by
the registration, in the Ministry of the Cadastre
(Lands), of a description of the property and the name
of its owner. A certificate of this registration is
issued to anybody on the payment of a nominal sum.
The method adopted in the purchase of a property is
for legal representatives, of seller and buyer, to ex
amine the registers of the Cadastre. When the real
ownership is thus established, the sale is carried out
and on presentation of the contract, and an Act of
Transfer, the name of the former owner is erased
from the register and the name of the new owner in
scribed. We have examined the Registers in Con
stantinople and we found no alteration whatever in the
original inscription of properties in the name of Sultan
Abdul Hamid and his Heirs. We presume, there
fore, that the Young Turks found it impossible to
destroy these evidences of ownership. Consequently,
although in actual possession of Abdul Hamid’s pro
perties it would appear that they were unable to dis
pose of them legally, if at all. This is easy to under
stand in so far as Turkish Nationals are concerned,
but the point arises as to whether foreigners, or foreign
corporations, would not be justified in accepting titles
to property offered to them by a Government in power.
This point bears directly on the subject of the Meso
potamian oilfields.
Mesopotamian Concessions.
Negotiations for the concessions, after the deposi
tion of Sultan Abdul Hafaiid, were conducted with the
Young Turk Government, who notified the Powers
that the Ministry of Finance had been substituted for
the Civil List in the ownership of the Mesopotamian
Oil Concessions. The description of these negotiations
up to the outbreak of war in 1914 is given in the White
Paper we have already referred to. Briefly, on whose
initiative we have been unable to discover, the con
flicting German and British interests become amal
gamated in the Turkish Petroleum Company, in which
the Anglo-Persian were to have 50 per cent., the
Deutsche Bank 25 per cent, and the Shell Company
25 per cent, of the shares. This accord took place
in 1914, although the Turkish Petroleum Company had
been formed by the Deutsche Bank a considerable time
previously. We understand that the Anglo-Persian
Oil Company did not take up these shares until 1921,
so that from the outbreak of the war until that time
the Turkish Petroleum Co|mpany was kept alive by the
Shell. We further understand that the parties to the
1914 agreement of amalgamation undertook not to
negotiate separately for any oil concessions in Meso
potamia. The claims of the Turkish Petroleum Com
pany to the Mesopotamian Oil Concessions were sup
ported by both the British and the German Govern
ments through their respective Ambassadors in
Turkey.
In order to understand why this amalgamation
took place in 1914, we must refer to the political situa
tion of that time. The Young Turk Government up
to 1914 had found it difficult to make their revenue
•meet their expenditure. They had dragged along a
miserable financial existence from 1908 by borrowing
a few millions from time to time from the Imperial
Ottoman Bank and other banks in Constantinople, and
by pledging the toll receipts of the Galata Bridge. In
1914 they were faced with the urgent need for large
sums of money to pay for the upkeep of their com
plicated political organisation, and at the suggestion
of Djavid Bey, then Turkish Minister of Finance, the
powers signatory to the capitulations were asked to
CONFIRMATION OF MOUSSUL CONCESSION, 1902.
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 Kffendi, decorated with the Order in
brilliants of Osmanieh, and the Order First Class of
Medjidieh.
As the result of My Imperial Trade the Concession for
the sources of petroleum in the Vilayet of MOUSSUL has
been reserved for My Imperial Private Treasury, and it
appears from the Registry that at the date of the 5th Redjeb
1306 My Imperial Order was addressed to Your Ministry to
inform you that the Concession for the research and ex
ploitation of sources of petroleum in the Vilayet of
MOUSSUL in general, in the properties of My Private
estates as well as in the other parts of the said Vilayet, was
granted exclusively to My Imperial Private Treasury seeing
that in My Private properties situated in the said Vilayet of
MOUSSUL abundant sources of petroleum are met with.
In accordance with the purport of the Imperial Order
mentioned, My present Imperial Order has been delivered
by My Imperial Chancery to affirm, with emphasis, that the
Concession for the sources of petroleum already discovered
and to be discovered, in My Imperial private properties
situated in the said Vilayet as well as in the dependencies
and other parts of the said Vilayet is granted exclusively to
My Imperial Private Treasury.
You, My Minister above-named, will do what is neces
sary as regards My Private Treasury.
16th Ramazan 1320 (1902). (Office of the Imperial Chancery.)