"The diplomatic history of the Franco-British negotiations concerning Mosul will, when it is made known, constitute the most eloquent document upon British policy towards France."[48] According to the agreements of 1916, Mosul was in the French zone of influence in Arabia. Great Britain began by obtaining the cession of our territorial rights, as recognized by this treaty. The French Government gave way to her desires in spite of the opposition of its Foreign Minister. But when, later on, we demanded in compensation that 50 per cent. of the oil of Mosul should be reserved for us, Great Britain produced at the propitious moment the difficulty, unsuspected by our negotiators, of the Turkish Petroleum, a company which she had opportunely created in collaboration with the Royal Dutch a few months before the declaration of War in 1914. Now the Turkish Petroleum had obtained from the Turkish Government the grant of all the naphtha of the vilayets that we lost in renouncing the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. So, having abandoned Mosul, all we were to receive in exchange was the oil with which Britain consented, as a special favour, to supply us.
"When one knows England well," wrote M. Le Page, with justice, "one is not surprised that, when, with the help of France she has driven out America from the territory she covets, she should strive to throw over her helper, having got rid of her rival."
The petroliferous basin, which extends from Persia to Mesopotamia, is one of the most extensive as yet discovered in the whole world. The great deposits reach as far as twenty miles to the north of Mosul. In the valley of the Naphat, the oil flows naturally into the river. At Hit, on the Euphrates, there are asphalt deposits which have long been exploited by the natives. And it is probable that this petroleum basin, which also includes Palestine,[49] continues through Syria right to the shores of the Mediterranean. Near Latakia (Laodice) there are asphalt beds, which the Latakia Oil, a British company, has been exploiting since 1915. On the eastern side of the Gulf of Alexandretta, the streams which flow down from Mount Alma bear traces of oil. Thus, it is not surprising that this region has aroused, and still arouses, so much covetousness among the Powers. As early as 1903, the Imperial Ottoman Bagdad Railway Company, the famous Bagdad Bahn, obtained the grant of the right of exclusive exploitation of all deposits found within a distance of fifty kilometres from its lines. Germany transferred this right to the Turkish Petroleum when the latter company was created. The capital of the Turkish Petroleum was, to begin with,
50 per cent. British;
25 per cent. German (Deutsche Bank);
25 per cent. Dutch (Royal Dutch).
Germany's share has been handed over to France by Great Britain in order to obtain her support in the struggle against the United States.
As the War broke out almost at once, the Turkish Petroleum had not time to begin the exploitation of the oils of Mesopotamia. After the new King of Iraq has decided definitely what is to happen to them, it will take nearly five years to develop them fully.
In 1914, an Anglo-German agreement had expressly recognized the rights of France in Asia Minor. These rights, moreover, were respected in all essentials in the agreements between France, Russia, and Great Britain, in 1915 and 1916, for the partition of Asia Minor. This latter, in March 1916, defined French and British zones and French and British spheres of influence. "In a letter of May 15th," wrote the reporter of the Public Works Commission, "Sir Edward Grey requested that, in the zone which was to become French under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, it should be understood that all existing concessions, navigation rights, and the rights and privileges of all British religious, educational and medical establishments would be maintained."
In a letter of the same date, M. Cambon agreed. By these means France was tricked, for doubtless M. Cambon was not aware at the time that, from June 26, 1914, a British firm, the Turkish Petroleum Company, had obtained from the Turkish Minister of Finance, Saïd Halim, the concession of all rights over oil discovered or to be discovered in the vilayets of Mosul, Basra, and Bagdad.[50] Now, it was just from these three vilayets that the oil in the French zone came; so much so that, by the interpretation of the Franco-British Agreement of May, 1916, France was completely ousted from the oil production of Mesopotamia.
Thanks to Henry Bérenger, a new agreement was concluded between him and Mr. Walter Long in March and April, 1919. Henry Bérenger recalled the agreement made before 1914 between Saïd Halim and the Bagdad Bahn, the railway company which had passed into French and British hands since the German defeat. The Turkish Petroleum Company was subject to this agreement, because the railway passed through its oil-fields. Rights had been reserved for the Germans over half the production of Mesopotamia. "Thus, France obtained 25 per cent. as her half-share of the German rights." Unfortunately, this agreement met with a certain opposition at the Quai d'Orsay. It was held up, and M. Clemenceau did not sign it, "because, on February 8, 1919, after we had ceded Mosul and Palestine at the request of Mr. Lloyd George upon the threefold condition of the oil agreement—whole-hearted British support of the French point of view in the event of American objections—and finally the exact fulfilment of the 1916 treaty concerning the frontiers of Syria, Mosul excepted, our British friends presented to us a map which deprived us of one-third of Syria in addition."
Such was the explanation given to the Chamber by André Tardieu! A certainty was sacrificed for a possibility. M. Henry Bérenger strove to have the treaty revived, and on December 21st signed a new contract with Sir Hamar Greenwood, the British Minister in charge of oil questions, very similar to the Long-Bérenger Agreement, except in the matter of native interests. This time, however, Lloyd George, not considering it advantageous enough to Britain, refused to sign it.