Page 90 - Arabian Studies (II)

80 Arabian Studies II

mcrcial point of view’.9 Accordingly the Farsan Island Oil Co. was
registered with the Board of Trade in May 1912 with a nominal share
capital of 160,000 £1 shares. (It appears that 115,000 shares were to
be issued as fully paid up otherwise than in cash and were to be
received (with £3500 in cash) by the Eastern Petroleum Co. Ltd., in
consideration of the sale to the Farsan Islands Co., of a permis de
recherche granted by the Turkish Government in respect of the
Farsan Islands. The Eastern Petroleum Co. undertook to pay A. H.
Brown for the sale of the above mentioned permis de recherche,
£21,500 in cash and £165,000 in fully paid up shares of the Farsan
Islands Oil Co., (out of the 115,000 shares mentioned above). >1 0
In March 1913 a request was presented by Assim and Habakkuk to
the Turkish Ministry of Mines for the transfer of the permis de
recherche to Rogers, a nominee of H. H. Rushton, a freelance dealer
in concessions and a share holder in the Farsan Oil Company Ltd. It
was rejected by the Council of Ministers on the grounds that it was
‘inadvisable’ to allow foreigners to operate in territory occupied by the
‘rebel’ Sayyid Muhammad al-Idris!.11 In June 1913 the Eastern
Petroleum Oil Company prematurely transferred the concession to
the Farsan Islands Oil Company.12 The British Embassy in Con­
stantinople made numerous protests in August and September over
the refusal by the Council of Ministers to authorize the transfer of
the concession. The question was then included among British
demands upon the Turkish Government during talks in London with
Hakki Pasha over the Turkish increase in customs dues and the
creation of monopolies. I 3
Upon an undertaking to guarantee that the Company was almost
entirely British, the British Ambassador in Constantinople was
instructed on 29 January 1914 to inform Turkey that the prompt
transfer of the Farasan licence to Rogers was ‘an urgent condition’ of
Britain’s agreement to Turkish monopolies. The Ambassador further
said that an article on the subject in the proposed agreement with
Turkey had already been practically agreed to by Hakki Pasha, the
Turkish representative in London. At first the only result was the
deportation of Assim to Sinope. But the final transfer of the
agreement was ratified by the Ottoman Council of Ministers on 11
March 1914 and all was completed by April.14
It was not until 13 October that Rushton pointed out to the
British Government that the Company, in order to keep its rights,
had to begin prospecting within three months and enquired of the
Foreign Office if there was any danger in doing so. He added that the
British Admiralty had a right to call for large supplies of oil from the
Company. In reply Rushton was told to await political developments