ملف ٥٦٤٦\١٩١٨ "بلاد فارس وبلاد الرافدين: ترتيبات التلغراف المستقبلية" [و‎‎١‎٣‎٠] (٣٠٣/٢٧١)

submarine telegraphic (^ble, ^which^ starting some'p^ointTof 'tli^Brftisli 1 ^’ ex ^, nse ’. a
Z d oSStodltof’ WiU ^ o£ the Sha t-el- Arab, whereTt^wni” join
Ad2ls “ nanCe aDd repairs ° f thiS Cable ShaU Le at tlle of the Indian
ff/' jf'f '''l : |P' Kl -i '' i,: S: 1 l tHrl authorises the establishment on Ottoman territory at the
mouth ot the Shat-el-Arab, of a British Telegraph Office, with a staff, which shall not exceed
m number oO peisons, placed under the exclusive orders of a British Station Master and
which as well as the apparatus and all the instruments requisite for workino- the submarine
line, shall be at the expense of the British Government. ar ne
I\. The aforesaid British Office shall be located in the same building occupied bv the
Ottoman station at the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, with a view to facilitate till combined
operations ot the common service.
the apparatus of the Ottoman service and that of the British service at that joint station
shall be placed m separate compartments, but in close proximitv to each other and shall not
he connected.
The exchange of messages shall take place immediately on their receipt the officers
handing them to each other through a window, and the service of the British and Ottoman
offices shall be permanent. The rent and cost of maintenance of the mixed telegraphic
station shall be shared in equal proportions by the British and Ottoman Administrations.
V. It is well understood that the active service of the British Office on Ottoman territory
shall be limited to the receipt and delivery by hand to the Ottoman Office of the messages
arriving from India by the submarine cable ; to the tranmission of those which are delivered
to it by the Ottoman Office and lastly, to the superintendence and maintenance of a safe and
regular submarine communication between the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab and India.
The Direction-in-Chief of the mixed station shall devolve on the Ottoman Administration
hut without the right of interfering in the internal administration, of the British Office.
VT. In order to ensure promptitude in the Indo-European correspondence and its regular
transmission and receipt the Ottoman Government will not fail to establish a permanent
service at Bagdad and Fao, as well as at the majority of stations on the main line of Asia
between Constantinople and Eao, and to appoint thereto a staff possessing a knowledge of the
English language sufficient for the perfect performance of that important service.
Moreover, the Ottoman Government being desirous that the expeditious transit of the
Indo-European messages over its territory should be rendered still more satisfactory, engages
to establish at Constantinople an office of transmission devoted exclusively to the service of
messages to and from India. Its officers, and especially the Station Master, shall be selected
from those of the Ottoman telegraph officials who are thoroughly conversant with the English
language.
VII. The Ottoman Government will take the necessary measures to secure that one wire
of the main line from Constantinople to Fao, shall be always exclusively devoted to Indo-
European messages. In case this wire should get out of order, or in case of a press of traffic,
the official Indo-Europpan messages may be forwarded by one of the Avires intended for local
traffic, but after the official despatches of the Ottoman Government. In that case private
Indo-European despatches shall be fonvarded, together Avith private messages already
deposited at the office, and in alternative order with those messages, whatever may have been
the hour at which the latter may have been deposited.
VIII. The Convention of Brussels, of 30th June 1858, in all that relates to the details of
the telegraphic service shall be mutually observed by the two contracting Governments, in so
far as it is not opposed to the terms of the present Convention.
IX. It is agreed betAAmen the High Contracting Parties that the rates for Indo-European
messages sent by the Ottoman lines in Asia throughout their AAdiole extent from Constantinople
to Fao, or to the Persian frontier in the direction of Khanakain and vice versa, shall not exceed
the limit of 27i francs for a single message sent from Constantinople to Fao or vice versa, and
of 22k francs for a single message sent from Constantinople to Khanakain oi vice versa, as
also that the rates for messages traversing the Avhole submarine line from India to Fao, or to
Bushire and vice versa, shall not exceed the limit for the former of ola francs for each single
despatch and for the latter of 50 francs.
X. The administrations of the two contracting Governments will communicate to each
other with the least possible delay the tariff of their stations and frontiers, in so far as they
may have reference to the Indo-Ottoman frontier of I'ao. According to that tariff the rates
shall he mutually accounted for in the monthly accounts of messages exchanged between the
two administrations at the aforesaid frontier of Fao.
XI. The mutual account for telegraphic rates, expenses of postage, and of expresses, &c
shall he checked at the expiration of every month and settled quaiteily. The liquidation and
payment of the surplus which may he due to either administration shad take place at the close
»f each quarter. The accounts of each administration shall enumerate only the rates n debit:
they shall be drawn up by the Ottoman Administration in francs and centimes, the total being