Abstract: This part concerns the disposal of river craft in Mesopotamia and contains material relating to:The arrangements made by Lord Inchcape [James Lyle MacKay], of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company Limited, with the Ministry of Munitions towards the purchase of the Government’s surplus river craft in MesopotamiaThe vessels purchased by the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company from the Government through financial arrangements in Bombay [Mumbai], from March to August 1920The transfer of the Inland Water Transport Department in Mesopotamia from military to civilian authorities, and the amount of military transportation vessels to be maintainedThe suggestion of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, to the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, that they convince the civilian and military authorities respectively to agree to the sale of the river fleet in MesopotamiaThe wishes of General James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane to retain a portion of the river craft until the railway from Basrah [Basra] to Baghdad has proved its reliability, and consideration that he can carry his supplies by water more cheaply than could be done by possible purchasersThe criticism of the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, of British Army control over the oil fleet as being ‘uneconomical’, for charging three times that of civilian organisations and railway transportationThe financial statement of the Ministry of Munitions to Parliament on the ‘Disposal of Surplus Government Property’, together with a ‘Memorandum on Disposals’ (ff 40-47)The schedules of the Inland Water Transport Headquarters, Basrah, for fitting out and delivering the vessels to Keti Bandar, Calcutta [Kolkata] and Rangoon [Yangon] (ff 34-37)The shortage of personnel in the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force to make the arrangements for the delivery of vessels to the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation CompanyThe observation by the War Office that it would entail an actual loss to make the vessels (all but nine) seaworthy and deliver them to Lord Inchcape under the stipulationsThe responsibility for policing inland waterways in Mesopotamia and the possible takeover, by civil authorities, of four armed gunboats on loan from the AdmiraltyThe ‘non-delivery’ of river craft to the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company due to the change in the military’s positionThe reluctance of British military authorities in Mesopotamia to place river transport solely under private control, in case of a possible emergency in Government transportation.Physical description: 1 item (119 folios)
Abstract: Correspondence and papers relating to British prisoners of war in Baghdad, detained in the wake of the commencement of hostilities between Britain and Turkey in Mesopotamia [Iraq] in November 1914. The papers cover: the status of British subjects including British Indians in Baghdad; reports of Turkish troop movements in Mesopotamia; correspondence between the British and United States governments, the latter working as an intermediary between the British and Ottoman governments, to secure the good treatment and release of British prisoners in Baghdad; reports from the United States Consul at Baghdad (Charles Frederick Brissel) on conditions at Baghdad; a report on a journey made from Baghdad to Bombay [Mumbai] by British Indian employees of the Political Residency in Baghdad in November 1914 (ff 147-153); in June 1915, negotiations for the exchange of British subjects (including women and children) detained at Baghdad, with Turkish officials stranded at British-occupied Amara [Al ‘Amārah]. The file’s principal correspondents are: the Foreign Office, including the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Algernon Law, Sir Ralph Spencer Paget; the Government of the USA, including the US Consul at Baghdad and the US Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul], Philip Hoffman.The volume contains two items in French; letters from the Ottoman Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, forwarded by the US Ambassador at Constantinople (ff 32-33, ff 49-50).The part includes a divider (f 1) which gives the subject and part numbers, the year the subject file was opened, subject heading, and list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 215; 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 leading and ending flyleaves. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: Papers concerning British women and children detained by Turkish authorities in Baghdad as prisoners of war, and an agreement for their exchange (brokered by the United States Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul]) for Turkish officials and their families captured in Amara during the British invasion of Mesopotamia. The file is a direct chronological continuation of File 94/1915 Pt 1 ‘German War:- Turkey. Prisoners’ (IOR/L/PS/10/532). The file covers: reports of the release and deportation to Mosul of the remaining British women and children held at Baghdad; the decision to extradite these women and children to Beirut and the Mediterranean, rather than down the river Tigris to the Persian Gulf; requests from the Ottoman Government for information of a number of Turkish officials and their families detained at Amara; lists of British and Turkish prisoners of war to be exchanged by both sides; the General Officer Commanding at Basra’s objections to the repatriation of some Turkish officials from Basra.Several items in the volume (correspondence from the Ottoman Government and the Comité Internationale de la Croix-Rouge) are in French.The file includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 239; 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 leading and ending flyleaves. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: Papers relating to Ottoman government officials who were detained as prisoners of war by the British occupying force (Indian Expeditionary Force ‘D’) at Basra in late November 1914, and sent to India for the duration of the war. The majority of the papers concern two prisoners (Seyyid Talib Bey [Talib bin Rajab Al-Naqib], and Shaikh Salim Al Khayyum [Salim al-Khayyun]). These include notes and reports on the two individuals (outlining their family background, history, political sympathies, character, and potential use to British causes in the Arab world); and details of their detention in India (in Bombay [Mumbai] and Bellary [Ballari]). Papers dated 1918-1920 also detail Seyyid Talib’s return to Basra via Egypt. At the front of the correspondence are copies of letters exchanged between British officials in the Persian Gulf, and several of the rulers of the Arab coast of the Gulf, in response to the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, and the prospect of war between Britain and Turkey (ff 209-221). The file’s main correspondents are: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Zachariah Cox; the Deputy Secretary to the Government of Bombay, John Edwin Clapham Jukes; the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign and Political Department.The file includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 225; 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 leading and ending flyleaves. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.