Abstract: Memorandum outlining oil concessions in Persia and Iraq held by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Standard Oil, and the Turkish Petroleum Company. It covers the Arabian littoral of the Gulf, and highlights the restrictions placed on Arab rulers by treaty engagements from granting oil concessions without approval of His Majesty's Government. In addition, it notes that Eastern and General Syndicate have a concession for Bahrein [Bahrain] Islands; and assesses the importance of Persian oil to Britain.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences and terminates at f 76, as it is part of a larger physical volume; this number is written in pencil, and is located in the top right corner of the recto side of the folio.
Abstract: The file consists of correspondence and official agreements relating to the Iraq Petroleum Company's oil conventions with the Iraq Government.Correspondents include the HM Representative, Baghdad, and the British Embassy in Baghdad.Also includes:the convention published in the official
Iraq Government Gazette, No. 49 (4 December 1938) between the Iraq Government and the Basrah [Basra] Petroleum Company Limited (subsidiary of the Iraq Petroleum Company) concluded on 29 July 1938; with published letters exchanged between the Iraq Government and the Basrah Petroleum Company, and the law ratifying the convention.the agreement between the Iraq Government and Iraq Petroleum Company, BOD [British Oil Development] Company, and Basra Petroleum Company, dated 25 May 1939.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 front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 32; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: Thefile contains papers regarding the 1914 oil concession granted to the TurkishPetroleum Company, which became the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1929. The primarycorrespondent is H P W Giffard, Petroleum Department, Board of Trade.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 66, and terminates at f 70, as it is part of a larger physical volume; 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; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
Abstract: Correspondence regarding the ownership and management of the Iraqi Railways. The file opens with a small amount of correspondence regarding the decision to dispense with the services of Edward Ralph Perry, the Agent of the Iraqi Railways in Bombay, and also to appoint Mr A Rawlinson to the position of Iraqi Railways Agent to England.The majority of the file consists of correspondence between the Foreign Office, HM Ambassador to Iraq, and the Government of Iraq, concerning the sale of the Iraqi Railways to the Government of Iraq. The correspondence discusses: the economic viability and strategic value of the railway; the need to ensure its effective future running; the retention of key posts for British personnel under new arrangements; and the establishment of a joint Anglo-Iraqi management board. A draft agreement written by HMG can be found at folios 76-86, with extensive comments by George William Rendel of the Foreign Office, at folios 61-75. A copy of the final agreement, plus notes exchanged between HM Ambassador to Iraq (Arthur Clerk Kerr) and the Iraqi PM (Nuri Said Pasha) can be found at folios 15-26.The file also contains material regarding a proposal by the British Oil Development Company to construct a line from their oil fields at Qasab to the existing rail system at Tel Kotchek [Al Ya'rubīyah], and also a proposed contact for the southern line from Qaiyara [Al Qayyārah] to Baiji.The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is found at the end of the correspondence (folio 2).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 180; 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 2-179; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
Abstract: The file contains papers relating to the oil concessions and operations of the Iraq Petroleum Company and the British Oil Development Company in Iraq.It includes:Papers concerning payments due to the Government of Iraq from these companies.Papers of the Committee of Imperial Defence Standing Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, dated 1933, concerning the British Oil Development Company’s proposed pipeline from its concession near Mosul to the Mediterranean.Papers regarding the official opening of the Iraq Petroleum Company’s pipeline connecting the oil-field at Kirkuk with the Mediterranean port of Haifa, on 14 January 1935.The papers include India Office minute papers, correspondence, and three newspaper cuttings from
The Times. The correspondence is largely between Sir Francis Henry Humphrys, HM Ambassador to Iraq (HM Representative, Baghdad), and Sir John Simon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Other correspondents include: the India Office; the High Commissioner of Iraq; the Colonial Office; Sir John Cadman, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iraq Petroleum Company; and the [British Government] Petroleum Department (Mines Department).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 front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 89; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: Correspondence and other papers concerning oil exploration and applications for oil concessions in Mesopotamia [Iraq] and in the frontier region between Mesopotamia and Persia [Iran] during and in the years following the First World War, when Mesopotamia was under British military occupation and administration. The papers cover: an application for an oil concession on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, made to the British Government by the Motor Petrol Association Limited, 1918; an application made to the Government by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) for an extension of their Persia oil concession to cover the ‘Persian Gulf littoral’, 1918; the development of an oilfield at Naft Khana [Nafţ Khānah] in Mesopotamia, with company expenditure paid from British military funds; discussion of the position of the Turco-Persian frontier in relation to the Naft Khana oilfields; the transfer of territory from Persia to Mesopotamia, and the formation of a new company by APOC to apply for concession rights in this territory; discussion between the British civil administration in Mesopotamia, HM Petroleum Executive, APOC, the India Office and Foreign Office, on future oil policy in Mesopotamia; the US Ambassador in London’s concern that representatives of the Standard Oil Company of New York were being forbidden to undertake geological surveying work in Mesopotamia, 1919.The file’s principal correspondents are: the Civil Commissioner in Mesopotamia, Arnold Talbot Wilson; the India Office; the Foreign Office; HM Petroleum Executive.The volume 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 inside back cover with 236; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: The item comprises correspondence and other papers concerning oil exploration in territories that were part of the Ottoman Empire prior to the First World War. The item includes: reports on exploratory drilling being undertaken by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) at Naft Khana [Nafţ Khānah], in territory transferred from Persia [Iran] to Mesopotamia [Iraq] in 1914 in response to recommendations made by the Turco-Persian Boundary Commission; the question of whether APOC drilling activity at Naft Khana should be paid for out of military funds, given Britain’s military occupation and administration of Mesopotamia during and after the First World War; oil concessions in Mesopotamia in relation to the San Remo Oil Agreement (1920), signed between the British and French Governments; a 1920 survey report by the APOC geologist, William Robert Smellie, entitled ‘Oil in relation to Fars anticlines’ (ff 132-139), and a response by the Officiating Director of the Geological Survey of India, Edwin Hall Pascoe, that disagrees with Smellie’s findings (ff 100-101); British Government policy on mining and oil prospecting in Palestine; and correspondence exchanged between representatives of the Government of the United States and the Foreign Office, relating to the refusal to permit American companies to conduct oil surveys in Mesopotamia.The item’s principal correspondence are: the Foreign Office; HM Petroleum Executive, the Civil Commissioner in Baghdad, Arnold Talbot Wilson; and representatives of the Government of the United States.The item 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: 1 item (242 folios)
Abstract: The volume comprises copies of correspondence, memoranda and other papers, produced in response to the prospect of an oil company backed by German capital taking control of future oil concessions in Mesopotamia [Iraq], and the implications that such concessions might have on the Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s (APOC) own oil concession in neighbouring Persia. The prospect of foreign capital exploiting Mesopotamia’s oil resources was a particular cause for concern amongst senior officials in the Admiralty, who were dependent on APOC’s oil production for their fuel supplies, and the Foreign Office. The more peripheral interest of such a concession in Mesopotamia to the Government of India and the India Office is reflected in the volume’s papers.The volume’s principal correspondents are: the Secretary to the Admiralty (Sir William Graham Greene); Secretary at the Foreign Office (Sir Louis du Pan Mallet); Secretary of the Political Department at the India Office (Sir Arthur Hirtzel); Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the India Office (Sir Thomas William Holderness); the Managing Director of APOC (Charles Greenway).Subjects covered include:correspondence dated late 1912, chiefly between representatives of the Admiralty and Foreign Office, airing concerns over the implications of exploratory oil concessions agreed for Mesopotamia between a consortium including the National Bank of Turkey, Shell (referred to in the volume as either the Shell Transport Company or the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company) and Deutsche Bank, to APOC oil exploration in Persia;discussion of the Government of India’s interest in maintaining an independent APOC, and whether the Government of India should not invest in APOC, including a proposal that it purchase oil from APOC for use on the Indian railways, or contribute to the purchase of fuel supplies on behalf of the Royal Navy;through February 1913 to April 1913, diplomatic negotiations (including some correspondence in French) seeking to secure concessionary agreement for oil exploration in the Mesopotamian vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad for APOC (based on earlier arrangements made between the Ottoman Government and William Knox D’Arcy on APOC’s behalf) against the competing claims of the National Bank of Turkey consortium, and oil exploration rights outlined in the railway concession held by the Société du Chemin de Fer ottoman d’Anatolie (Anatolian Railway Company);between May 1913 and July 1913, with the likelihood of APOC not being given exclusive oil concessionary rights to Mesopotamia, negotiations to secure ‘absorption’ (with a British-controlling interest) of APOC with the National Bank of Turkey or its partners, Shell and Deutsche Bank.The core correspondence in the volume dates between September 1912 and September 1913. The earlier date indicated in the volume’s date range refers to a copy of a contract between Turkish Government’s Ministry of the Civil List and the Société du Chemin de Fer ottoman d’Anatolie, dated 17 July 1904 (ff 147-148).The volume includes a divider which gives the subject (Turkey in Asia: oil concessions) and part number (1), the year the subject file was opened (1912), and a list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (f 1).Physical description: The foliation sequence commences with 1 and terminates with 411. The front and back covers, along with the leading and ending flyleaves have not been foliated.
Abstract: The volume is a chronological continuation of File 3877/1912 Pt 1 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ (IOR/L/PS/300), and comprises papers concerning ongoing negotiations over oil concessions for the Mesopotamian vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad, in which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), Deutsche Bank, the British-backed National Bank of Turkey, and the Anglo-Saxon Oil Company (ASOC, a division of Royal Dutch Shell) are the principal claimants.The papers largely deal with the British Government’s concern that APOC achieve a predominant position in any final concession, at the cost of ASOC and the National Bank of Turkey, the latter holding a stake in the Turkish Petroleum Company. The principal correspondents in the volume are: the president of the National Bank of Turkey (Sir Henry Babington Smith); the Managing Director of APOC (Charles Greenway); Foreign Office representatives (Alwyn Parker; Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe); Deutsche Bank board member Emil Georg von Stauß.The correspondence covers:the withdrawal of the National Bank of Turkey from concessions negotiations;negotiations between officials representing the British Government and Deutsche Bank over the form of any concession agreement;arrangements for the division of Turkish petroleum concession interests between the British and German Governments, the Deutsche Bank, National Bank of Turkey, the ASOC and APOC.The volume includes a divider which gives the subject (Turkey in Asia: oil concessions) and part number (2), the year the subject file was opened (1912), and a list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (f 1).Physical description: Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last with folio 148; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the two leading and ending flyleaves.
Abstract: The volume is a chronological continuation of File 3877/1912 Pt 2 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil concessions’ (IOR/L/PS/301), and comprises papers concerning ongoing negotiations over oil concessions for the Mesopotamian vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad, in which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), Deutsche Bank, the British-backed National Bank of Turkey, and the Anglo-Saxon Oil Company (ASOC, a division of Royal Dutch Shell) are the principal claimants. The principal correspondents include: the Director of APOC (Charles Greenway); Foreign Office officials (Sir Louis Du Pan Mallet; Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe); the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey); the Admiralty (William Graham Greene).The papers cover:correspondence dated 1914 regarding a claim made by Roland H Silley, represented in the correspondence by his solicitors Treherne, Higgins and Company, to concessionary rights in Mesopotamia;proposals for APOC to represent the D’Arcy Group, the original British claimants to oil concession rights in Mesopotamia;an agreement made between representatives of the British and German Governments, the National Bank of Turkey, ASOC, Deutsche Bank and the D’Arcy Group (APOC), dated 19 March 1914, for the ‘Fusion of Interests in Turkish Petroleum Concessions of the D’Arcy Group and of the Turkish Petroleum Company’ (f 271);efforts, in late October and November 1914, to maintain the agreement of 19 March 1914, in spite of Britain now being at war with Turkey, including a letter from Greenway, dated 2 November 1914, stressing the importance of carrying through the concessions arrangements without delay (ff 156-161);a minute, with no indication of author, dated January 1915 which offers a concise précis of the history of oil concessions in Mesopotamia, and the background to the agreement of 19 March 1914 (f 143);in 1915, discussion amongst Foreign Office officials over the validity of the agreement signed on 19 March 1914, in response to events of the First World War.Physical description: The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front.
Abstract: Correspondence and papers relating to claims for exploratory oil licenses in Ottoman Turkey (including the vilayets of Baghdad, Mosul and Basra in Mesopotamia [Iraq], and Syria and Nejd). Principal correspondents include: the solicitors Treherne, Higgins and Company, who represent the oil explorer Roland H Silley; representatives of the Central Mining and Investment Corporation Limited (L Reynolds; Louis Julius Reyersbach); Foreign Office (FO) officials (Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe; Sir Louis Du Pan Mallet).correspondence concerning Silley’s claims (competing with those made by the D’Arcy Group and Anglo-Persian Oil Company) over mining rights in the Mesopotamian vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad, an historical précis of which can be found in a letter dated 14 May 1914 from Treherne, Higgins & Company to the Foreign Office (ff 111-112);correspondence concerning Silley’s attempts to secure oil licenses in Nejd, Silley’s efforts to contact the prospective Vali of Nejd, Bin Saud (‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd), and discussion amongst FO officials over the prospects of the Turkish Petroleum Company (in large part financed by Deutsche Bank and the Dutch Anglo-Saxon Oil Company) having a presence in Arabia and the Persian Gulf;a note, written by Sulaiman Nassif, enclosed with a letter dated 27 April 1914, on petroleum prospecting concession licenses in Syria (f 105).Physical description: The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front.
Abstract: A chronological continuation of File 3877/1912 Pt 3 ‘Turkey in Asia: oil interests’, Part 5 comprises correspondence following the annulment of the 19 March 1914 agreement on oil concessions in Mesopotamia, which discusses the wider implications of the war on oil concessions in Turkey, and anticipation of post-war agreements. The principal correspondents are: the Assistant Undersecretary to the Foreign Office (Sir Maurice William Ernest de Bunsen); Secretary of the Political Department of the India Office (Sir Arthur Hirtzel); the Director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC, Charles Greenway).The correspondence includes:discussion of the elimination of German interests in Turkey and Arabia;the split between Britain and France of former Ottoman territories;existing APOC claims in the Mesopotamian vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad;Shell Royal Dutch Group’s claims in the Mesopotamian oil concessions.Physical description: The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front.