File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’
- Holding institution:
- British Library. India Office Records and Private Papers
- Data provider:
- Qatar National Library
- Title:
- File 3531/1905 Pt 2 ‘Mesopotamia:- Navigation of Tigris + Euphrates; Euphrates + Tigris Steam Navigation Co; Hamidieh Co.’
- Contributor:
- Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (correspondent)
HM Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (correspondent)
Political Resident and Consul-General, Turkish Arabia (correspondent)
Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company, Director (correspondent)
Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (correspondent) - Date:
- 1905/1911
- Description:
- Part 2 of the volume is comprised of copies of correspondence and other papers relating to the proposed merger of the Turkish-Government-operated Hamidieh Steamship Company and the British company, the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (also referred to as the Lynch Company, ETSNC). The item’s principal correspondents are: representatives of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (hereafter ETSNC, chiefly the Company Secretary, H W Maclean), the Director of the ETSNC (Henry Finnis Blosse Lynch); the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey); the Private Secretary to Sir Edward Grey (Louis Du Pan Mallet); the British Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul] (Sir Gerard Augustus Lowther); the Political Resident for Turkish Arabia (Captain John Gordon Lorimer).The majority of the correspondence is dated 1909 to 1910, and focuses on the controversial nature of the proposed merger of the two steamship operators, which bore more of the character of a takeover by the British concern of its Turkish counterpart. While many Turkish commentators understood the prospect of a likely British monopoly of navigation rights on the Tigris and Euphrates in Irak [Iraq], the British Government feared having their commercial activities in Iraq diminished, possibly to the advantage of competing German commercial interests. The controversy, which acquired the sobriquet the ‘Affaire Lynch’ in the British press, precipitated a local popular uprising in Iraq, and in part led to the resignation of the Grand Vizier Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha, who had supported the merger, in December 1909. The correspondence is thus split between the contractual negotiations over the navigation concession, and the political consequences of its controversy, including cuttings of articles published in the press in Britain ( The Times, The Morning Post) and copies of articles published in Ottoman Turkey ( Tanin, Truth).1 item (315 folios)
- Language:
- English
French - Type:
- Archival item
- Type (Narrower):
- Other Texts
- Type (Broader):
- Text
- Subject:
- Imperialism
Steamships
Concessions
Arab nationalism - Geographic region:
- Iraq
- Extent:
- 1 item (315 folios)
- Rights:
- Unknown
Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence
Public Domain
Creative Commons Attribution Licence
Open Government Licence
Copyright or data protection restrictions - Identifier:
- 81055/vdc_100031558831.0x000002_ar
81055/vdc_100031558831.0x000002_en
IOR/L/PS/10/88/2 - Is part of:
- British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers