"الملف 73/7 I (D 19) وضع الكويت، سكة حديد بغداد، والمفاوضات الأنجلو تركية في ١٩١١" [و‎‎١‎٦‎٢] (٦٣١/٣٥٧)

■Tins Docmaen' is the Property of His Britan nic STaj^tr's ""overrment.^
EASTERN DEPARTS! ENT.
SECRET SERIES.
[10007] No. 1.
Sir G. Lowthcr to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received March 20.)
(No. 160.)
^ _ Pera, March 13, 1911,
WITH reference to your telegram No. 63 of the 11th instant and previous
correspondence on the subject of the Bagdad Railway negotiations, 1 have the honour
to transmit to you herewith copy of the " notice" which I have communicated to the
Sublime Porte relative to the attitude of His Majesty's Government with regard to the
4 per cent, increase of the customs duties,
I have, &c.
GERARD LOWTHER.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Note communicated to Sublime Forte by Sir G. Lowthcr.
HIS Britannic Majesty's Embassy lost no time in forwarding to His Majesty's
Government the memorandum handed to His Majesty's Ambassador by his Excellency
the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the 1st March, 1911, containing certain proposals
regarding the completion of the Bagdad-Persian Gulf Railway. These proposals will
receive the careful consideration of His Majesty's Government, and a reply will be sent
in due course.
In the meantime, His Majesty's Embassy desires, under instructions from its
Government, to call attention to the fact that paragraph 2 of the memorandum referred
to, which deals with one of the conditions of the assent of His Majesty's Government to
the increase of the customs duties by 4 per cent., gives a statement of the conditions
laid down by His Majesty's Government which does not correspond w r ith those which
have at various times been explained to the Sublime Porte.
The point of view always maintained by His Majesty's Government has been that
they would be unable to consent to the proposed increase for a fixed period if such
increase were to be devoted, by setting free other affected revenues, to facilitating the
prolongation of a railway which could not but have a prejudicial effect upon long
established British commercial interests in Mesopotamia.
These views were clearly set forth in a conversation which his Excellency the
Minister for Foreign Affairs had with His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs in London on the 19th May last, and on the 20th July they were again
explained at the Foreign Office to his Highness the Ottoman Ambassador in London,
who was on that occasion accompanied by his Excellency the Minister of Finance.
Subsequently these views w 7 ere set forth at greater length in a memorandum which
was placed in the hands of his Excellency the Minister of Finance when his Excellency
was in London.
The Sublime Porte will doubtless also remember that His Majesty's Government,
in the course of the pourparlers regarding the question of consenting to the additional
imposition of the 4 per cent,, expressed the desire, in the interests of the internal
development of Egypt, that the Ottoman Government should arrange to remove the
restrictions on the borrowing powers of the Government of His Highness the Khedive
imposed by the Imperial firman of the 7th August, 1879 (19th Chaban, 1296), and thus
revert to the financial status quo ante of Egypt as indicated by the Imperial firman of
the 25th September, 1872 (22nd Redjeb, 1289), and that of the 8th June, 1873 (13th
Habi-Akher, 1290).
[March 20.J
Section 4.
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[1932 u—4]