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Agent of Empire? The National Bank of Turkey and British Foreign Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Marian Kent
Marian Kent
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
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Extract

‘The National Bank of Turkey was founded in 1909 with British Government encouragement and support to further British economic enterprise in the Ottoman Empire’ so we are told in all die standard and respectable works on the subject. This is correct in form but incorrect in substance, for one cannot accept the implications it carries with it, in some cases explicitly stated. These are that, in the first place, the Foreign Office was instrumental in actually starting the Bank, in the second place, that the Bank succeeded very far in its objects, and in the third place, that it ever received much Foreign Office support in what it sought to do.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 367 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 See, e.g. Feis, Herbert, Europe the World's Banker (New Haven, 1930), p. 331Google Scholar; Baster, A. S. J., The International Banks (London, 1935), p. 112Google Scholar; Piatt, D. C. M., Finance Trade & Politics in British Foreign Policy 1815–1914 (O.U.P., London, 1968), pp. 193–4Google Scholar, or Viner, Jacob, “International Finance and Balance of Power Diplomacy, 1880–1914”, in Political and Social Science Quarterly, vol. ix, 1929, pp. 407–451.Google Scholar Although very valuable in many ways, on the relevant sections of this article they all repeat roughly the same brief, partially inaccurate account. It is worth mentioning also, that the relevant series of the Documents Diplomatiques Francçois are likewise disappointing on this subject.

2 Memo., 3 July 1906, received in the Foreign Office 16 July, encl. in confid. despatch No. 452 from Sir Gerard Lowther (British Ambassador at Constantinople). These are printed in Gooch, G. P., AND Temperley, H., British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (H.M.S.O., London 1928–1938) (hereafter abbreviated to B.D.), v, No. 147, pp. 174–85. The accompanying Foreign Office commentary which is equally illuminating, is not reproduced and is located in F.O. 371/152, No. 22545.Google Scholar

3 Notes by Grey to Hardinge, 15 Oct. 1907, F.O. 371/350, No. 33703. The fact that this statement comes in late 1907 does not matter - the sentiment was the same a year earlier.

4 Memo, by A. W. Fox, Bd. of Trade, and Minute by Hardinge, II Nov. 1907, ibid., No 37427.

5 For 1906 see correspondence in BERTIE MSS (Public Record Office, London), Nos. Tu/06/2, 4–5. For 1907 see ibid., Nos. Tu/07/7, 9–12, 14–28 & Fr/07/41; and F.O. 371/350, file 15180. For 1908 see BERTIE, Nos. Tu/08/1–9, 25, 28; and F.O. 371/538, file 5777; 547, file 26752; 548, file 28640; 549, file 30912.

6 For a detailed and fascinating account of Sir Ernest Cassel's background and activities see Grunwald, Kurt, ‘“Windsor - Cassel” The Last Court Jew. Prolegomena to a Biography of Sir Ernest Cassel’ in Year Book XIV, 1960, of the Leo Baek Institute, pp. 119–161.Google Scholar My article corrects and supplements pp. 144–147 of Grunwald's contribution. The French Ambassador to London, incidentally was M. Paul Cambon; Jules Cambon, his brother, was French Ambassador successively at Madrid and Berlin.

7 Desp. from Grey to Lowther, No. 348, 25 Aug. 1908, F.O. 371/548, No. 28640.

8 In fact the nominal capital of the Bank was only £1 million, called up,£250,000. Member ship of the Board also included initially, on the Turkish side: H.H. Prince Said Halïm (Young Turk, and son of the late Halim Pasha, son of Mehemed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt); Manias Zadé Refik Bey (prominent Young Turk); General Cherif Pasha (Young Turk, and son of the late Saïd Pasha, Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs); Hassan Fehmi Pasha (Minister of Justice); Reshad Sadi Bey (Young Turk, friend of Cassel); General Mahmud Muktar Pasha (son of Ghazi Muktar Pasha); Nubar Pasha (Egyptian Armenian); H.H. Said Pasha (late Grand Vizier); Djemal Pasha (Young Turk, son-in-law of the Sheikh-ul-Islam); A. Ralli (Greek banker, Ottoman subject); and on the non-Turkish side, as well as Block and Whittall, were named Mr Essayan (Armenian, British subject) and M. Bonnet (French lawyer).

9 Letter from Francis Campbell, F.O., to Mr Arthur Vere, 28 Nov. 1908, F.O. 371/547, No. 46679, and accompanying F.O. minutes. My italics.

10 Letter from Vere to H. C. Norman (F.O.), 29 Nov. 1908, F.O. 371/549, No. 42735.

11 Memo, of 3 Nov. 1908, by Sir Adam Block, end. in desp. No. 764 from Lowther to Grey, 10 Nov. 1908, ibid., No. 39821.

12 Letters from Hardinge to Block, Cassel and Huth Jackson, 13 Nov. 1908, ibid., No. 39083.

13 Minute by Hardinge, 20 Nov. 1908, ibid., No. 40480.

14 Note by Hardinge for Grey, encl. letter from Cassel to Hardinge, 29 Dec. 1908, ibid., No. 45704; letters from Block to Hardinge, 2 Mar. 1909, F.O. 371/762, No. 8682, and between Grey and Lowther, Priv., 8 & 15 Mar. 1909, GREY MSS (Public Record Office, London), vol. 92 (F.O. Memos., 1909–11), and desp. from Lowther to Grey, No. 238, 5 Apr. 1909, F.O. 371/762, No. 13678.

15 Letter from Grey to Lowther, 30 May 1909, GREY, vol. 92.

16 F.O. Memo, by Grey, 16 Aug. 1909, ibid. My italics.

17 Evidence is contained in correspondence in BERTIE, Tu/09/1, 2, 4, 5, 8-n; GREY, 1909 France, and vol. 92; F.O. 371/762, file 659, and F.O. 371/766, file 2674.

18 On the activities of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (established after the state bankruptcy of 1875), apart from brief accounts mentioned in some of the works cited above in n. I, or in Hershlag, Z. Y., Introduction to the Modern Economic History of the Middle East (Leiden, 1964)Google Scholar, the classic account is in Blaisdell, D. C., European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire (U.S.A., 1929, and repr. 1966).Google Scholar

19 See desp. from Grey to Lowther, No. 406 confid., 19 Sept. 1908, F.O. 371/549, No. 33186; also printed in B.D., v, pp. 261–2, and quoted in varying degrees by the writers listed in n. 1, above.

20 Desp. from Grey to Lowther, No. 416, secret, 3 Oct. 1908, F.O. 371/549, No. 34124. See also conversation between French Charge d'Affaires and Louis (later Sir Louis) Mallet, then Assistant Under Secretary at the F.O., reported in letter from Grey to Bertie, 11 Aug. 1908, F.O. 371/545, No. 27894.

21 Annual Report for Turkey for the Year 1908, B.D., v, p. 280; corresp. in F.O. 371/549, Nos. 38155, 38314, 39464, 40311, 41344 and 42597; and letter from Hardinge to Bertie, priv., 5 Nov. 1908, BERTIE Tu/08/24. The Turks had contracted with the I.O.B. in Sept. 1908 for a loan of some £T4,700,000 nominal or £4,000,000 actual, but final details were not complete until mid- June, 1909, the loan to be issued in July. Correspondence in F.O. 371/579, Nos. 23941 and 23996.

22 F.O. 371/549, Nos. 41834 and 42200.

23 Minute for Grey from Hardinge on conversation with Messrs. Vivian Smith and Grenfell from Morgans, 20 Nov. 1908, ibid., No. 45717. On German Gvt. satisfaction at the international financial co-operation see correspondence in B.D., vi, Nos. 130, 131, 156 & 108.

24 Feis, , op. cit., p. 330.Google Scholar

25 Minute by Grey, n.d., but 14 Sept. 1909 or later, on F.O. 371/762, No. 33649.

26 Of the standard accounts of the general 1910 loan negotiations, Feis, op. cit., pp. 323–327Google Scholar is the longest, totalling 4 pages, Baster, , op. cit., pp. 110–111Google Scholar and Viner, , op. cit., pp. 433–434Google Scholar each allow less than 2 pages, and Piatt does not discuss it at all. But the accounts in Feis, Baster and Viner are short on facts while Viner also confuses the Ottoman Bank and Crédit Mobilier stages of the negotiations together into a composite account. The F.O. documentation derives largely from the indefatigable Bertie, whose acute perception and well-placed sources of information were able to keep the F.O. well informed on both backstairs gossip and ‘leaked’ accounts of interviews.

27 Letter from Bertie to Tyrrell (then Senior Clerk at the F.O. and Private Secretary to Grey), priv. & confid. 11 Aug. 1910, BERTIE, Tu/10/3. See also memo, by Babington Smith and Cassel of 4 Oct. 1910, on the 1909 and 1910 loan negotiations, and minuted in the F.O. as ‘correct’. It was enclosed in a letter from Babington Smith to the F.O., 4 Oct. 1910, F.O. 371/993, No. 36803.

28 Letter from Block to Hardinge, 10 Sept. 1910, ibid., No. 33484.

29 See n. 28 above, and National Bank memo, of 4 Oct. 1910, n. 27 above. Block also mentioned how glad he was to have been away when all this was going on for the French would have been sure to say he was encouraging the Turks to disagree with the French conditions. The accusation is made in the German documentation and repeated in Baster, , op. cit., p. III.Google Scholar

30 For evidence of exacdy how and how far M. Cochery was pressing the Turks to give the Ottoman Bank the Turkish Treasury, see letter from Bertie to Grey, very confid., 6 Oct., and priv. and confid. tel, ditto, 7 Oct., & priv. & confid. letter, 8 Oct. 1910, GREY, Vol 51. See also F.O. 371/993, No. 36443, and Bertie's summary, 15 Oct. 1910, of the negotiations between 7 & 15 Oct., F.O. 371/994, No. 37848.

31 There were several other conditions, subsequendy not insisted on, including recognition of French sovereignty over Tunis and recognition of Algiers as French territory. This list is taken from the National Bank memo, of 4 Oct. as it is a later and more accurate version than that given in the documentation at this particular point - to be found in ibid., Nos. 34385 & 34627. The gist of the French conditions was also received by the F.O. on 27 Sept., in what appears to be an authentic report from M. Pichon, the French M.F.A., to M. Bompard, French Ambassador in Constantinople, on the French negotiations with Hakki Pasha: See encl. in desp. from Grey to Bertie, No. 424, very confid., 27 Sept. 1910, ibid., No. 35044. In any case, in the course of these negotiations, the F.O. received many such confidential documents through either a M. Maimon, agent of Mr Barry of the London Committee of the Ottoman Bank, or from Barry himself. The documents were clearly from a ‘leak’ in the French Government. The F.O.'s reaction to receiving them varied from interest and gratitude to embarrassment and a request to the donors not to send any more. On Maimon, see Minute by Mallet, 18 Apr. 1910, F.O. 371/995, file 184, No. 13832; for examples of the ‘leaked’ documents see, e.g., F.O. 371/993, Nos. 34933, 35044, 35294, 36093, 36094, 36095; and F.O. 371/994, Nos. 37191, 37501, 38080, 38350, 39381.

32 Desp. from Grey to Bertie, No. 225, 30 Apr. 1910, F.O. 371/993, No. 14472, repr. in B.D., vi, No. 358; also desp. from Bertie to Grey, No. 183, confid., 4 May 1910, desp. from Lowther to Grey, No. 434 very confid., 27 June 1910, with accompanying F.O. minutes, F.O. 371/993, Nos. 15531 & 23954.

33 Tel. from F.O. to Bertie, No. 315, 13 Sept., and desp. from Bertie to Grey, No. 349, confid., 14 Sept. 1910, F.O. 371/994, Nos. 32407 & 33592.

34 Draft of letter from Hardinge to Cassel, priv., 19 Sept. 1910, ibid., No. 33592. Rumours reached the F.O. from all quarters and the French Charge d'Affaires in London even called personally at the F.O. to complain. He was shown Hardinge's letter to Cassel. On the rumours see: desp. from Bertie to Grey, No. 359, 20 Sept. 1910, Note from Hardinge to Grey, 20 Sept., tel. from Lowther to Grey, No. 196 P confid., 20 Sept., and letter from Count de Salis to Tyrrell, 16 Sept., encl. memo, of conversation with Cassel, and tel. from Count de Salis to Grey, No. 55 confid., 21 Sept. 1910, ibid., Nos 34166, 34386, 34141 and 34265.

35 Reported in tel. from Grey to Bertie, No. 346 P, 22 Sept., and see also Note from Hardinge to Grey, 21 Sept. 1910, F.O. 371/993, No. 34385. This account is substantiated in the Cassel/Babington Smith memo. op. cit. See also letter from Cassel to Hardinge, 22 Sept., tel. from Grey to Bertie, No. 329 P, 22 Sept., tel. from Bertie to Grey, No. 67, 23 Sept., and F.O. minutes, ibid., Nos. 34391 and 34402.

36 See desp. from Bertie to Grey, No. 363, 23 Sept. 1910, ibid., No. 34519. He quoted Temps, Figaro, Echo de Paris, and Journal des Débats, although the latter did not entirely believe Cassel's “dementi”.

37 Tel. from Grey to Bertie, No. 355 P, 26 Sept. 1910, tel. from Bertie to Grey, No. 70 P, 28 Sept., with F.O. minutes, tel. from Grey to Bertie, No. 344 P, 30 Sept., ibid., Nos. 34627 & 35203, and letter from Grey to Bertie, priv., 30 Sept. 1910, GREY, vol. 51.

38 Note by Nicolson for Grey, 4 Oct. 1910, and minute by Mallet (n.d. but written on or about 3 Oct.), F.O. 371/993, Nos. 36187 and 35643.

39 Tel. from Bertie to Grey, No. 73 (‘By Bag’), Oct. 6/7, ibid., No. 36312, and minute by Nicolson for Grey, 7 Oct. 1910, F.O. 371/994, No. 36819; and letter from Babington Smith to Nicolson, 7 Oct. 1910, F.O. 371/993, No. 36804,

40 Minute by Alwyn Parker, 10 Oct. on Babington Smith's letter n. 39 above. Parker was then only Junior Clerk in the F.O. (in 1912 he rose to Assistant Clerk, and in 1918 to Librarian) but he played a major role in all the pre-war Turkish negotiations. Lowther, in a private letter to Nicolson on 11 Oct. 1910, agreed with Babington Smith: ‘Our position is somewhat ridiculous if we urge Cassel at great expense to establish a bank here and when he wants to do business we oppose him.’ NICOLSON MSS (Public Record Office, London), 1910, 11, F.O. 800/344.

41 For details of the following summary see: Bertie's, ‘summary’ op. cit.Google Scholar, also correspon dence in F.O. 371/994, Nos. 37443, 37498, 37618, 37752, 38227, 38243, 38329, 38330, 38332, 38438, 38477, 38625, 38664, 38748, 38775, 38913, 39035, 39473.

42 Lowther to Grey, No. 235 confid., 27 Oct. 1910, Nicolson to Grey, 29 Oct. 1910, Cassel to Nicolson, confid., 30 Oct. 1910, ibid., Nos. 39159, 39724 & 39656. Nicolson to Bertie, priv., 3 Nov. 1910, BERTIE, Tu/10/13, and NIC, 1910, 11, F.O. 800/344.

43 F.O. documentation on this stage may be found in F.O. 371/994, Nos. 39071, 39035, 39488, 39159, 39840, 43064; the best description of the terms of the loan are in Nos. 40350 and 41560. See also B.D., vi, No. 407, and encl. in No. 414; X2, No. 4. Letters from Goschen to Nicolson, Berlin, 28 Oct., priv., and Marling to Nicolson, 20 Dec. 1910, NIC, 1910, 11, F.O. 800/344. The tentative statement by Feis, op. cit., p. 326 that ‘the French Government appears at the last moment to have made a conciliatory gesture through the French representatives on the Debt Council, but without effect’, is correct. On 27 Oct. Lowther reported to the Foreign Office that Djavid said that France had ‘now indirectly proposed to him here to give a loan on the surplus tithes of the Ottoman Debt without any other conditions, but that Djavid refused the offer’, desp. from Lowther to Grey, No. 235 confid., 27 Oct. 1910, F.O. 371/994, No. 39159.

44 Letter from Cassel to Nicolson, 8 Oct. 1910, ibid., No. 37190.

45 Letter from Nicolson to Cassel, confid., 10 Oct., and to Bertie, priv., 11 Oct., and desp. from Bertie to Nicolson, 9 Oct. (also detailed in Bertie's ‘summary’ No. 37848, but there dated 10 Oct.), and ditto, xt Oct. 1910, ibid., Nos. 37007 & 37082.

46 Apart from those documents specifically quoted, evidence for this section comes from: F.O. 371/994, Nos. 37499, 37752, 37779, 37848, 38036, 38084, 38217, 38218, 38331, 39724, 39792, 39901, 40174, 41283, 44172; BERTIE, Tu/10/9, 10–15; and correspondence in NIC, 1910, 11, F.O. 800/344.

47 See private letter from Nicolson to H. J. O'Beirne (Councillor and sometimes Chargé d'Affaires at the St. Petersburg Embassy), 26 Oct. 1910, NIC, 1910, 11, F.O. 800/344; Nicolson to Bertie, Priv., 3 Nov. 1910, BERTIE, Tu/10/13, and NIC, 1910, 11, F.O. 800/344.

48 Note from Nicolson to Grey, 3 Nov. 1910, F.O. 371/994, No. 45474; tel. from Grey to Bertie, 12.30 p.m., 9/10 Nov., ibid., No. 40867; priv. letter from Nicolson to Bertie, 5 Dec. 1910, BERTIE, Mis/10/18.

49 Correspondence over the appointment of a French financial adviser to the Turks is in two private letters from Bertie to Hardinge, 16 & 28 Sept. 1908, BERTIE, Ftr/08/36 & Tu/08/14, and one from Bertie to Grey, No. 369, 29 Sept. 1908, F.O. 371/546, No. 33796.

50 Letter from Babington Smith to Nicolson, Constantinople, 30 Dec. 1910, encl. ‘Memoran dum of interview with Hakki Pasha, Grand Vizier, on Dec. 29 1910’, F.O. 371/1240 No. 636. The interview, but not the letter, is reprod. in B.D. op. cit., X2 with a covering desp. from Marling to Grey, No. 14 Secret, 4 Jan. 1911, ibid., No. 6. See also letter from Nicolson to Hardinge, priv., 12 Jan. 1911, HARDINGE MSS (Cambridge University Library) 92/1/24 or NIC. 1911, 1, F.O. 800/347.

51 Letter from Mr L. D. Carnegie (Councillor and sometimes Chargé d'Affaires at the Paris Embassy until 1913) to Nicolson, 16 Dec. 1910, NIC. 1910, 11, F.O. 800/344; Letter from Nicol son to Lowther, priv., 23 Jan. 1911, NIC. 1911, 1, F.O. 800/347.

52 Memo. encl. in Minute from Nicolson for Grey, n Feb. 1911, F.O. 371/1240, No. 5126.

53 Minute by Grey on letter from Marling to Nicolson, II Jan. 1911, NIC. 1911, 1, F.O. 800/347. See also letter from Lowther to Nicolson, priv., 31 Jan. 1911, ibid., and n. 54 below.

54 Letter from Nicolson to Lowther, 23 Jan. 1911, NIC. 1911, 1, F.O. 800/347; and letter from Nicolson to Cassel, 14 Feb. 1911, F.O. 371/1240 No. 5126.

55 Minute by Nicolson for Grey, 24 Mar., and letters between Nicolson and Cassel, 29, 30 & 31 Mar. 1911, ibid., Nos. 11563, 11652, 11712 & 11986.

56 Tel. from Lowther to Grey, No. 90 P., 13 Apr. 1911, F.O. 371/1240, No. 13894, and letter from Babington Smith to Nicolson, 13 Apr. (rec. 20 Apr.), 1911, ibid., Nos. 13894 & 14721; and letters from Lowther to Nicolson, priv., 14 Apr., 24 May & 7 June 1911, NIC, 1911, 11, F.O. 800/348.

57 Tel. from Grey to Lowther, No. 102, P., 15 Apr. 1911, ibid., No. 13894: See also letter from Nicolson to Babington Smith, 27 Apr.; desp. from Bertie to Grey, No. 177, 20 Apr., & Minute by Nicolson, 4 May, ibid., Nos. 14721, 14804, & 16051.

58 Minute by Nicolson, 4 May, Memorandum of Interview, by Babington Smith, 6 May, and accompanying minute by Norman, 11 May, ibid., Nos. 16051 & 17728; letters from Nicolson to Bertie, n May 1911, Tu/11/4, and to Lowther, 16 May 1911, NIC. 1911, 11, F.O. 800/348.

59 Desp. from Bertie to Grey, No. 214, 14 May 1911, F.O. 371/1240, No. 18529, repr. in B.D., X2, No. 28; see also letter from Bertie to Nicolson, priv. & confid., 14 May 1911, Tu/11/5 or NIC. 1911, 11, F.O. 800/348.

60 Letters fromm Nicolson to Bertie, 17 May 1911, Tu/11/7, or NIC. 1911, 11, F.O. 800/348, and from Bertie to Grey, No. 60, 18 May 1911, F.O. 371/1240, No. 19007.

61 See, e.g., Eubank, K., Paul Cambon, Master Diplomatist (USA, 1960), pp. 135–6.Google Scholar

62 Letter from Nicolson to Bertie, priv., 28 June 1911, NIC. 1911, m, F.O. 800/349; desp. from Bertie to Grey, No. 329, 17 July 1911, F.O. 371/1240, No. 28548 & also repr. in B.D., X2, No. 33; Letters from Lowther to Nicolson, priv., 15 Nov., and from Babington Smith to Nicolson, 20 Nov., 1911, NIC. 1911, vi, F.O. 800/352.

63 Letter from Nicolson to Lowther, 23 Jan. 1911, NIC. 1911, 1, F.O. 800/347.

64 See correspondence between Babington Smith, Cassel, and Nicolson, Mar.-May 1911, F.O. 371/1240, Nos. 11288, 11682& 14721.

65 See F.O. correspondence with Babington Smith, Lowther and Marling, and Cambon, Apr.-Aug. 1911, F.O. 371/1240, Nos. 14721, 27007, 26743, 27548, 27460, 27459, 28257, 28884, 29298, & 33200; also NIC. 1911, II, III, iv, F.O. 800/348, 349, 350.

66 Tel. from Grey to Marling, No. 269R confid., F.O. 371/1240, No. 26743.

67 For details and documentation on this section see my forthcoming book, Oil and Empire. British Policy and Mesopotamian Oil, 1900–1920 (Macmillan, London, 1975).Google Scholar

68 Letter from Babington Smith to Grey, confid., n June 1913, F.O. 371/1826, No. 26928.

69 See correspondence etc. in F.O. 371/1826, Nos. 26928, 27272, 28201, 29346, 30276, 30277, 30628, 31358, 41942, 44357, and letter from Block to Grey, 15 July 1913, GREY, F.O. 800/104.

70 Letter from Stanley, Board of Trade, to F.O., confid., 10 Nov. 1913, and accompanying F.O. Minutes and letter from Nicolson to Lowther, 25 Nov. 1913, F.O. 371/1826, No. 51234.

71 Correspondence between Mailer and Grey, 21 Jan., 23 Feb. and 30 Mar., and Memo, by Crowe, 30 Mar. 1914, F.O. 371/2127, Nos. 3544, 7329, 12684 and 14256. In 1913 Mallet replaced Lowther as Ambassador in Constantinople, even Grey, in private correspondence, making such comments about Lowther as: ‘I cannot say he has done splendidly and been very helpful …’, letter from Grey to Nicolson, 12 Apr. 1913, NIC. 1913, iv, F.O. 800/365.

72 On irrigation, see correspondence etc., 17 and 28 Mar., 10 Apr., 3 July 1911, F.O. 371/1240, Nos. 9962, 11682, 11986 and 27007. On the warships contract, see letter from Babington Smith to F.O., 21 July 1911, ibid., No. 29298. A list of loans, including the warships and the docks, arsenals and naval construction loans, is in a letter from F.O. to Lord Farringdon, 24 Mar. 1925, F.O. 371/10867, No. E1700.

73 For discussion on these point's, see memoranda and correspondence of June 1920 in F.O. 371/5213, No. 7781. According to this documentation the Bank held important balances in Ger man marks and Austrian crowns, remitted to Berlin and Vienna at pre-war rates, which, owing to official regulations and restrictions, it was prevented from realizing. It had taken a considerable participation in the 1914 5 per cent Turkish loan which in 1925 stood at about 10 per cent of its nominal value, and, above all, it was a creditor to the Turkish Government for important advan ces which had subsequently to be most drastically written down.

74 Letter from Lord Farringdon to Sir George Lloyd, 2 Feb. 1925, and encl. ‘Memo. Regard ing the National Bank of Turkey’, 30 Jan. 1925, and associated F.O. Minutes and correspondence, F.O. 371/10867, Nos. E1045 and E1700.

75 A. G. M. Dickson (Chairman, London Committee), National Bank of Turkey, to F.O., 18 May 1925, and desp. from R. C. Lindsay to Chamberlain, No. 511, 22 May 1925, ibid., Nss. E2903 and E3336. See also The Times (London), 12 Apr. 1930, 17g; 7 Jan. 1932, 17d.