IOR/L/PS/12/2882

The file contains papers relating to the oil concessions and operations of the Iraq Petroleum Company and the British Oil Development Company in Iraq.

It includes:

• Papers concerning payments due to the Government of Iraq from these companies.
• Papers of the Committee of Imperial Defence Standing Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, dated 1933, concerning the British Oil Development Company’s proposed pipeline from its concession near Mosul to the Mediterranean.
• Papers regarding the official opening of the Iraq Petroleum Company’s pipeline connecting the oil-field at Kirkuk with the Mediterranean port of Haifa, on 14 January 1935.

The papers include India Office minute papers, correspondence, and three newspaper cuttings from The Times. The correspondence is largely between Sir Francis Henry Humphrys, HM Ambassador to Iraq (HM Representative, Baghdad), and Sir John Simon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Other correspondents include: the India Office; the High Commissioner of Iraq; the Colonial Office; Sir John Cadman, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iraq Petroleum Company; and the [British Government] Petroleum Department (Mines Department).

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.