IOR/L/PS/10/322

The file is a direct chronological continuation of File 4949/1912 Pt 4 ‘Abu Musa – Angelegenheit. 1907.’ (IOR/L/PS/10/321), containing correspondence exchanged between the German Consulate at Buschär [Bushire] (Helmuth Listemann; Wilhelm Wassmuss) and others: the British Government; the Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh] representative of the German firm Robert Wönckhaus and Company (Herr H Rosenfeld; Herr Krumpeter); the British Political Residency in the Persian Gulf (Major Arthur Prescott Trevor; Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Zachariah Cox); the German Imperial Government.

The correspondence refers to a dispute over a concession for the mining and shipment of red oxide at Abū Mūsá, originally awarded to Arab merchants by Shaikh Sālim bin Sulṭān Āl Qāsimī of Sharjah in 1898, and part of which was subsequently acquired by Wönckhaus and Company in 1906. The dispute was sparked by the Ruler of Sharjah, Shaikh Ṣaqr bin Khālid Āl Qāsimī’s cancellation of the concession in 1907, and subsequent claims by Wönckhaus and Company and the German Government, over financial losses arising from the cancellation of the concession.

The majority of the file’s correspondence is in German. Official letters exchanged between the German Consul at Bushire and the British Political Resident are in French.