Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/283

 approved by Herr von Kühlmann, on behalf of the German Government; Mr. Alwyn Parker, of the British Foreign Office; and Hakki Pasha, minister plenipotentiary of the Sultan to the Court of St. James.[29]

Oil—the magic word which has become the open sesame of so many diplomatic mysteries—was of no inconsiderable importance in 1914. Early in that eventful year the British Government—in order to insure an uninterrupted supply of fuel to the fleet—had purchased a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. As a necessary step in the negotiations regarding Turkish oilfields the German Government was obliged, in March, 1914, to recognize southern Mesopotamia, as well as central and southern Persia, as the exclusive field of operations of the Anglo-Persian Company, and, in addition, to agree to the construction of a railway from Kut-el-Amara to Mendeli for the purpose of facilitating petroleum shipments. Thereupon an Anglo-German syndicate organized the Turkish Petroleum Company for the acquisition and exploitation of the oil resources of the vilayets of Mosul and Bagdad. Half of the stock of the new company was assigned to the National Bank of Turkey (controlled by Sir Ernest Cassel) and the D'Arcy group (in which Lord Inchcape was interested); one quarter was assigned to the Royal Dutch Company, and the remainder was reserved for the Deutsche Bank. Upon joint representations by the British and German ambassadors at the Sublime Porte, the Sultan, in June, 1914, conferred upon the Turkish Petroleum Company exclusive rights of exploitation of the oil resources of the Mesopotamian valley from Mosul to Bagdad.[30]

The vested interests of certain of its citizens having thus been amply protected, the British Government proceeded to complete its negotiations with the German ambassador in London. On June 15, 1914, Sir Edward Grey and