Abstract
Since the Mesopotamia oil negotiations could be isolated neither from Britain’s general oil policy nor from her international dealings with other great powers, it is worth inquiring how they fitted into Britain’s general Mesopotamian aims and preoccupations during these years. General international interest in the Ottoman Empire has already been indicated. But how were more specifically Mesopotamian interests occupying Britain during these years?
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Notes
For a more detailed description of British policy towards Mesopotamia, see my contributions (on the policy of Sir Edward Grey towards Constantinople and Asiatic Turkey) to a symposium on British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey. This will appear shortly with C.U.P., edited by Professor F. H. Hinsley. On the British Government’s attitude towards financiers and banking opportunities see my article ‘Agent of Empire? The National Bank of Turkey and British Foreign Policy’, in The Historical Journal, xviii, 2, 1975.
See, for example, British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914, v, pp. 43–4; Annual Report for Turkey for 1907, and private letter from S. H. Fitzmaurice (then Chief Dragoman at the Constantinople Embassy) to W. G. Tyrrell (then Senior Clerk, FO, and Private Secretary to Sir Edward Grey), 12 Apr 1908, ibid., v, no. 196, p. 247; also Sir Edward Grey’s memoirs, Twenty-Five Tears, i, pp. 172–3 and 258–60.
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© 1976 Marian Kent
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Kent, M. (1976). British Policy and Interests in Mesopotamia to 1920. In: Oil and Empire. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02079-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02079-9_2
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