IOR/L/PS/10/804

This volume contains correspondence on the disposal of river craft in Mesopotamia, exchanged between 9 May and 20 December 1919, after the conclusion of the First World War. It contains material relating to:

• The centralisation of the disposal of all small miscellaneous craft in the Ministry of Shipping, and the constitution of a Small Craft Disposals Department headed by Major Le Mesurier
• The appointment of the Shipping Controller as the Agent of the Disposal Board, and that of Colonel J MacGregor to represent the Ministry of Shipping in Mesopotamia in this connection
• The completion of the railway between Basra (also written as Busrah in this volume) and Baghdad, the availability of ‘a major portion’ of the Mesopotamian military fleet for disposal, and the effective monopoly established by Lord Inchcape [James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape] through his posts as the Government Director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and as sole Agent of the Standard Oil Company in the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, while also trading through the Mesopotamian-Persian Trading Corporation
• The agreement between the Shipping Controller and the Minister of Munitions for the latter to assume responsibility for the disposal of the surplus of small craft in Mesopotamia
• The Ministry of Shipping’s general policy to release all vessels on full requisition and arrange with shipping firms to carry troops and supplies at contract rates
• The information from the ‘leading Mahometan [Muslim] merchant’ in Baghdad that he proposes to ‘form a company representing local Mahometan, Jewish and Christian commercial interests’ to run steamers on the Tigris, and requests facilities to purchase suitable boats and barges
• The submission by the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company for the return of SS Khalifah, and the suggestion that ‘no tonnage should be hired to others until vessels have been hired to them to replace tonnage of which they have been deprived owing to military operations’
• The fleet of vessels on the rivers Tigris and Karun, controlled by the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company Limited, before and after the outbreak of the First World War
• The complaint of Lord Inchcape to Sir Thomas Holderness, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India, about the perceived opposition from the India Office to the commercial activities of Lynch Brothers and Company in Mesopotamia
• The hostility of local Mesopotamian merchants towards the Mesopotamia-Persia Trading Corporation (formerly Lynch Brothers and Company) and its commercial monopoly
• The suggestion from Lord Inverforth [Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth], Minister of Munitions, to Lord Inchcape to purchase the Mesopotamian Fleet
• The suggestion by the former Minister of Munitions, Winston Churchill, of a conference between the Ministry of Munitions and the India Office for the disposal of small craft in Mesopotamia
• The schemes outlined by Colonel W R Dockrill on how to commercialise the transportation of supplies, materiel and personnel for the Mesopotamian Army of Occupation
• The involvement of the Mesopotamian Feet in supplying the Army of Occupation at Kut [Al-Kut], and transporting coal and oil fuel stores to Baghdad from Basrah [Basra]
• A possible meeting between Lord Inverforth, an India Office representative and the Director of Movements
• The offer made by Strick, Scott and Company to purchase steamers, barges, tugs, and oil tanks for the transportation and storage of oil in Mesopotamia
• The Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s interest in the Government’s oil fleet and installations in Mesopotamia, and information on the numbers, location and capacity of the vessels
• The offer of Bird and Company, Calcutta [Kolkata], to purchase the motor launch Strathnaver
• A request from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to the Under-Secretary of State for India for barges and tugs to transport oil from Abadan to the vilayets of Baghdad and Basra
• The agreement between the War Office, India Office and Foreign Office for the sale of the whole surplus of the Mesopotamian Fleet, including the portion already returned to India.

The volume also includes a ‘General Statement on Mesopotamian Craft’, listing the different types of vessels, including hospital craft, tugs and steamers, and barges, up to 8 November 1919; ‘Minutes of an Inter-Departmental Meeting held at the India Office on Monday, 27 October 1919, to consider Colonel [Arnold Talbot] Wilson’s proposal regarding the disposal of the fleets and barges in Mesopotamia’ (ff 83-88); ‘A Memorandum by Sir Thomas Holderness [Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India] on the Disposal of the Mesopotamian Fleet’ (ff 113-116); ‘A Brief Report [by Major H G Chesney, Assistant Political Officer] on the Proceedings of the Meeting [of local merchants] called for [in Basra] on Friday, 18 July 1919’ (ff 129-132); and the record of an inter-departmental conference held at the India Office to discuss the question of the disposal of surplus rivercraft in Mesopotamia (f 185).