§ MR. ARTHUR ARNOLDasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he can give any information as to a recent communication from the Turkish Embassy, stating that
Menahim Salih Effendi, a merchant of Bagdad, has been authorised to establish, without monopoly, a navigation service on the Tigris;and, whether that navigation will now be free to vessels other than those under the Ottoman flag?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEHer Majesty's Government are aware of the announcement quoted by the hon. Member respecting a concession for the navigation of the Tigris recently granted by the Porte to a merchant at Bagdad. 301 The concession does not, however, appear to relate to the question of the navigation of that river by vessels under a foreign flag. I may add that Her Majesty's Government are desirous, in the interest of the Provinces of Asiatic Turkey, that the Euphrates and Tigris should be opened to navigation by vessels under all flags; but the principle of the free navigation of rivers, established by the additional Act of the Treaty of Vienna, applies only to rivers which flow through the territories of different States.