IOR/L/PS/10/566

Papers relating to trade between Baghdad and Basra in Mesopotamia [Iraq] and Great Britain, in the wake of Britain’s military invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia during the First World War. Subjects covered include: the resumption of trade between Britain and Baghdad; enquiries made to the British Government by British firms asking if they may resume trade to and from Mesopotamia; enquiries relating to goods seized and condemned by the Prize Court; the resumption of trading at Baghdad by a number of firms ‘approved’ by the British Government’s Board of Trade; enquiries by commercial firms relating to goods looted or destroyed during the military invasion of Mesopotamia. The file’s principal correspondents are: the Foreign Office; the India Office; the Foreign and Political Department of the Government of India; Henry Fountain of the Commercial Department of the Board of Trade.

The file includes a single item of correspondence in French: a copy of a telegram from the Persian Consul General in Baghdad (f 144).

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.