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1. 'File 6/63 Use of Sitrah as a harbour by steamers'
- Description:
- Abstract: The file contains correspondence between Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, Adviser to the Government of Bahrain, Claud Cranbrook Lewis De Grenier, Director of Customs and Port Officer in Bahrain, and Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, Political Agent, Bahrain. The correspondence concerns the use of Sitrah harbour by the Mesopotamia Persia Corporation steamer, SS Neunfels, without prior permission from the Government of Bahrain.Folio 6 is internal office notes.Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 7; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-3; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
2. Coll 17/24 ‘Iraq. Internal. New Iraqi Income Tax Law. Effect on British aircraft and shipping.’
- Description:
- Abstract: The file contains papers mostly relating to the following: the objections of HM Government to Article 6 of the draft Iraq Salaries and Allowances Tax Law of 1930; and the liability of British aircraft and shipping companies operating in Iraq to income tax under Article 29 of the Iraq Income Tax Third Amendment Law of 1933 (these papers mainly concern shipping companies).The file also includes papers relating to matters including: the right of the Euphrates Tigris Steam Navigation Company to navigate the rivers Tigris and Euphrates; alleged excessive freight rates on Iraqi exports; and the status of the Mesopotamia Persia Corporation Limited.The papers largely consist of India Office minute papers, and correspondence and copy correspondence between the following: the India Office and the Colonial Office; the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office; the High Commissioner for Iraq and the Secretary of State for the Colonies; and HM Ambassador to Iraq (HM Representative at Baghdad) (with enclosures) and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.The file includes three documents in French: copies of Vizierial letters of 2 April 1846 and 20 June 1862, and a copy of a firman issued on 29 December 1834.The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 182; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-182; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
3. File 788/1919 Pt 2 ‘MESOPOTAMIA DISPOSAL OF RIVER CRAFT (1919.)’
- Description:
- Abstract: This volume contains correspondence on the disposal of river craft in Mesopotamia, exchanged between 9 May and 20 December 1919, after the conclusion of the First World War. It contains material relating to:The centralisation of the disposal of all small miscellaneous craft in the Ministry of Shipping, and the constitution of a Small Craft Disposals Department headed by Major Le MesurierThe appointment of the Shipping Controller as the Agent of the Disposal Board, and that of Colonel J MacGregor to represent the Ministry of Shipping in Mesopotamia in this connectionThe completion of the railway between Basra (also written as Busrah in this volume) and Baghdad, the availability of ‘a major portion’ of the Mesopotamian military fleet for disposal, and the effective monopoly established by Lord Inchcape [James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape] through his posts as the Government Director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and as sole Agent of the Standard Oil Company in the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, while also trading through the Mesopotamian-Persian Trading CorporationThe agreement between the Shipping Controller and the Minister of Munitions for the latter to assume responsibility for the disposal of the surplus of small craft in MesopotamiaThe Ministry of Shipping’s general policy to release all vessels on full requisition and arrange with shipping firms to carry troops and supplies at contract ratesThe information from the ‘leading Mahometan [Muslim] merchant’ in Baghdad that he proposes to ‘form a company representing local Mahometan, Jewish and Christian commercial interests’ to run steamers on the Tigris, and requests facilities to purchase suitable boats and bargesThe submission by the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company for the return of SS Khalifah, and the suggestion that ‘no tonnage should be hired to others until vessels have been hired to them to replace tonnage of which they have been deprived owing to military operations’The fleet of vessels on the rivers Tigris and Karun, controlled by the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company Limited, before and after the outbreak of the First World WarThe complaint of Lord Inchcape to Sir Thomas Holderness, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India, about the perceived opposition from the India Office to the commercial activities of Lynch Brothers and Company in MesopotamiaThe hostility of local Mesopotamian merchants towards the Mesopotamia-Persia Trading Corporation (formerly Lynch Brothers and Company) and its commercial monopolyThe suggestion from Lord Inverforth [Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth], Minister of Munitions, to Lord Inchcape to purchase the Mesopotamian FleetThe suggestion by the former Minister of Munitions, Winston Churchill, of a conference between the Ministry of Munitions and the India Office for the disposal of small craft in MesopotamiaThe schemes outlined by Colonel W R Dockrill on how to commercialise the transportation of supplies, materiel and personnel for the Mesopotamian Army of OccupationThe involvement of the Mesopotamian Feet in supplying the Army of Occupation at Kut [Al-Kut], and transporting coal and oil fuel stores to Baghdad from Basrah [Basra]A possible meeting between Lord Inverforth, an India Office representative and the Director of MovementsThe offer made by Strick, Scott and Company to purchase steamers, barges, tugs, and oil tanks for the transportation and storage of oil in MesopotamiaThe Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s interest in the Government’s oil fleet and installations in Mesopotamia, and information on the numbers, location and capacity of the vesselsThe offer of Bird and Company, Calcutta [Kolkata], to purchase the motor launch StrathnaverA request from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to the Under-Secretary of State for India for barges and tugs to transport oil from Abadan to the vilayets of Baghdad and BasraThe agreement between the War Office, India Office and Foreign Office for the sale of the whole surplus of the Mesopotamian Fleet, including the portion already returned to India.The volume also includes a ‘General Statement on Mesopotamian Craft’, listing the different types of vessels, including hospital craft, tugs and steamers, and barges, up to 8 November 1919; ‘Minutes of an Inter-Departmental Meeting held at the India Office on Monday, 27 October 1919, to consider Colonel [Arnold Talbot] Wilson’s proposal regarding the disposal of the fleets and barges in Mesopotamia’ (ff 83-88); ‘A Memorandum by Sir Thomas Holderness [Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India] on the Disposal of the Mesopotamian Fleet’ (ff 113-116); ‘A Brief Report [by Major H G Chesney, Assistant Political Officer] on the Proceedings of the Meeting [of local merchants] called for [in Basra] on Friday, 18 July 1919’ (ff 129-132); and the record of an inter-departmental conference held at the India Office to discuss the question of the disposal of surplus rivercraft in Mesopotamia (f 185).Physical description: Foliation: The foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 275; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
4. File 788/1919 Pt 3 ‘MESOPOTAMIA Disposal of River Craft’
- Description:
- Abstract: This file concerns the disposal of river craft in Mesopotamia and contains material relating to:The opposition of the Civil Commissioner in Baghdad, Colonel Arnold Talbot Wilson, to the proposals of Lord Inchcape [James Lyle MacKay, 1st Earl of Inchcape] for the disposal of river craft in Mesopotamia, on the grounds that it involved ‘unnecessary and undesirable abrogation by [the British] Government of its proper functions in favour of a private individual [Lord Inchcape] ... who is thereby enabled to exercise autocratic power in Mesopotamia’The particulars and estimated costs of the Inland Water Transport Fleet to be delivered to Basrah [Basra] and put into commission, the valuation of the Dockyard, and estimated cost of Magil [Al-Ma‘qil] Yard and its associated structuresThe announcement by the Manager of the Mesopotamia-Persia Corporation that if the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company were not given a monopoly for the transportation of goods, they would ‘create one by carrying goods for nothing, until they had forced out of business any local firms who were attempting to compete’The petition of the merchants of Basrah to the Civil Commissioner in Baghdad to arrange for the sale of the river craft in Basrah instead of Bombay [Mumbai] to provide them with a fair opportunity to purchase some of the vesselsThe opposition of Sir Percy Cox to assurances given to Lynch Brothers, Lord Inchcape and others, rather than a ‘consideration by commission or other specially constituted authority’ for navigation rights on the Tigris and EuphratesThe plan for the sale of surplus Mesopotamian river craft by Lord Inchcape on behalf of the British Government to take place in Bombay, and the issues relating to the inability of British and native firms from Baghdad to be present at such short notice, as well as the general absence of information about which specific vessels were being offered for saleThe Inland Water Transport schedules for the barges necessary to carry petrol for post-bellum Army requirements, and the oil barges used for storage at depots (ff 435-439)The statement of the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, to the Secretary of State for India on the vessels required for the civil administration of Mesopotamia, with an abstract of applications received from commercial firms for Inland Water Transport river craft (ff 423-431)The question of Lord Inchcape and his associates obtaining a legal or practical monopoly over river transportation in Mesopotamia and the position of the British GovernmentThe conditions set out by Civil Commissioner Baghdad that only ships designated by the Army as being surplus before 10 March 1920 be put up for sale, and the need to ensure equal opportunities for local purchasers with those from BombayThe Schedule for Craft required by the Civil Administration, from Brigadier-General Robert Herbert Wilfred Hughes, Director of Inland Water Transport, to the Civil Commissioner Baghdad (ff 316-319)The Sub-Committee on Mesopotamian Ports, Surveys and Inland Water Transport’s inter-departmental conference on Middle Eastern Affairs, 16 March 1920The information from the Inland Water Transport Office to the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, on pumping installations in connection with oil distribution at various stations (ff 261-269)The inter-departmental conference to discuss the disposal of surplus river craft in Mesopotamia, led by the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, and including representatives from the War Office, Inland Water Transport, Ministry of Supply, the Foreign Office, and the India Office, 8 April 1919The invitation by the Commissioner, Ministry of Munitions Disposal Board, General Headquarters, at the request of the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, on behalf of Lord Inchcape, of tenders for the purchase of all surplus Government river craft available in MesopotamiaThe report by Lord Inchcape to Minister of Munitions, Lord Inverforth [Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth], on his disposal of surplus small craft belonging to the Mesopotamian fleet, 31 March 1920 (ff 159-192)The advertisement for the sale of the river craft in the Baghdad Times, the popular response to a rumour about a possible sale to the Lynch Brothers, and the views of the Manager of the River Steamship Company expressed to the British Chamber of Commerce.Physical description: 1 item (482 folios)