891.6363 Standard Oil/56
The Chargé in Persia (Engert) to the
Secretary of State
Teheran, December 3,
1921.
[Received March 28, 1922.]
No. 771
Sir: With further reference to the Legation’s
telegram No. 73 of November 26, 9 p.m., I have the honor to transmit
herewith copy of a letter dated December 2, 192125 addressed to me by the British
Chargé d’Affaires in Teheran, together with its enclosures consisting of
copies of two notes which he presented to the Persian Prime Minister and
the Minister of Foreign Affairs,26 respectively, on
November 25, 1921, on the subject of the oil concessions of North
Persia.
These notes were presented to the Persian Government under instructions
from the British Foreign Office to protest against the grant to the
Standard Oil Company of a concession covering the oil of the northern
provinces which the British Government considers “to be entirely
indefensible and extremely unfriendly to his Majesty’s Government” and
to state that the British Government “will continue to uphold the prior
right of the British group”.
As soon as the Legation has obtained copies of the Persian reply to these
notes they will be transmitted to the Department.25
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
The British Chargé in Persia (Bridgeman) to the Persian Prime Minister (Ghevam-os-Saltaneh)
Teheran, 25 November,
1921.
Your Highness: I beg Your Highness to be so
good as to refer to the correspondence between this Legation and the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs on the subject of the Khoshtaria
concession, and especially [Page 651]
to Mr. Norman’s notes of 6th October 1920 and 2nd September and mine
of 13th October 1921. Your Highness will have seen from these papers
that my Government maintain the absolute validity of the rights,
duly acquired by purchase, of the A[nglo-] P[ersian] O[il] C[ompany]
to this concession, and do not admit the contention of Your
Highness’ Government that the concession is invalid because it was
not approved by the Majlis (which was not sitting at the time) and
because the Russian Soviet Government renounced concessions granted
to Russian subjects during the Imperial regime in Russia. H.M.G.
cannot allow the rights of British subjects to be infringed by any
arrangements subsequently entered into between the Persian
Government and third powers.
In view of these representations already made to the Persian
Government, and of which Your Highness personally must have been
fully cognizant, His Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs has directed me to inform Your Highness that he considers
the action taken by Your Highness, in proposing to the Majlis the
grant to an American Company of an oil concession covering the
northern provinces of Persia, and thus directly conflicting with the
rights legally acquired by a British Company, to be entirely
indefensible and extremely unfriendly to His Majesty’s
Government.
Lord Curzon has also instructed me to renew the official protests
referred to above, stating that His Majesty’s Government will
continue to uphold the rights of the British Company, and I am
accordingly addressing a note to His Excellency the Minister for
Foreign Affairs in that sense.
I avail myself [etc.]
