Page 212 - Gulf Precis (VI)_Neat

180 Part III
Pour co qui cst dubfilimont do la Marino Royal In Comet, il coniinuora, conpuo par lo
passe a restor sur los rivieres (lo la Mosopol.amic suitant l’cnicnto prdeedeminent ctnbli.
J*ai I’honno.ur do porler a la eonnaissanco do V. E. ccllc decision do la S. P. qui a cto dejb
conmnuniquco tclegiaphiquo au Gouvcrncur-Gcnthal do Bagdad.
72. Tho upshot of tho negotiations of 1S74-1S75 was on tho whole a dis­
tinct advance, on which tho Company could make a stand in tho future in
thoir continuous struggle against the machinations of the Turkish authorities.
73. Tho rosult of tho negotiations was telegraphed as follows by Sir A. Elliot
on 31st March to tho Foreign Oflfico :—
“Tho Porte authorises Messrs. Lynch to rcplnco one of their old steamers by a new ono and
also to employ tho steam launch in exceptional cases and when water is low. Tho objections
about tho Cornel nro wilhdrawo and tho vessel may remain at Baghdad.”
74,. The concession granted iu 1S75 was utilized by Messrs. Lynch in replac­
Seo tho Coinpany'i letter dated 23tli May 18S3, ing both their vessels the City of London
_
to Colonel Twe-dioin Socrot e., Augu»t less, noj. and Bcjleh by the Blosse Lynch and the
342*113 (No. 846). Khalifah, respectively. Both the new
vessels were larger than those whoso places they took. It must be noted that tho
Vizirial loiter laid no limitation as to size, and tho Turks did not think of raising
any objection on this score in 1875, as they did later on in 1S83, when a new
ship was brought to roplacc tho Blosse Lynch.

(ix) Question of our navigation rights in 1880-82. Eight of British
ships to tow barges.
75. In March 1880 Messrs. Lynch and Company (acting as Agents for tho
Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation
Political A., Moy 1882, Noi. 242*323.
Company) complained that the Vali of
Basrah had objected to tho S. S. Khaltfali towing a barge, and bad
declared that lie could not allow another bargo to leave, except under
sanction from Constantinople. Messrs. Lynch and Company added that thoy
bad given notice six months before of their intention to employ barges; that ono
barge bad now boon in use for three months, while the other had mado sovcral
trips.
76. It soon transpired that tho ground taken by Zabit Pasha, then Vali of
Basrah, was the old one, that Messrs. Lynch and Company were only entitled
to run two steamers on the Tigris, aud that, as barges wore not expressly men­
tioned in the Eirman which regulated the matter, their use could not bo per­
mitted, except under sanction from Constantinople. Tho Porte fully supported
this view of tho case, and when ultimately, under considerable pressure, the
barges were permitted to run, the sanction was made to depend upon tho conti­
nuance of the famine then prevailing in Mesopotamia, and this view was main­
tained not only in a letter, dated 13th Eebruary 1SS1, from tlio Vali to Mr.
Plowdcn, but also in tho Ottoman note dated 11th Decomber 1881. This note,
however, differs from those which bad preceded it in ono very important parti­
cular. Whereas in former notes—seo, for instance, Ali Pasha’s note dated 1st
October 1864,, and Safoit Pasha’s dated 31st March 1875—the Firman, which is
said to deGne Messrs. Lynch and Company’s rights, is described as relating to
the Tigris, its provisions are in the note of 1SS1 applied to the Euphrates.
77. In his despatch, dated 4.-th February 1881, tho British Ambassador
(Mr. Goschcu) asked Mr. Plowden to
8ccrct, IJny 1882, No*. 221-242.
confer with the Agent at Baghdad of
the.Tigris and Euphrates Navigation Company and to report what further argu­
ments based on usage or otherwise could be brought forward with the Porte on
the question of the navigation of tho Euphrates aud Tigris. Mr. Plowdcn sub­
mitted a long memorandum, portions of which have already been quoted,
explaining the precise positiou oil- tho following points :—
(1) the rights and privileges of the British Government in respect to tho
retention of vessels upon the Tigris and Euphrates;
(2) the rights of tho British merchants in general to navigate for com­
mercial purposes cither one or both these rivers;