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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎20r] (39/82)

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The record is made up of 1 file (41 folios, 5 maps). It was created in 3 Apr 1912. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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31
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
June 3, 1911.
Part III.— Conclusion.
There are two principal points involved in this
question, namely, at what place should the
boundary he made to strike oft* from the Shatt-
el-Arab, and, until it does strike off from the
course of that river, should it be drawn in mid-
channel, or should it be drawn along the left
(eastern) bank.
As explained in part I of this memorandum,
the British Hesident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and
Lieutenant Wilson, who was Acting Consul for
Arabistan, have urged that the boundary should
be made to strike off from the Shatt-el-Arab at a
place more advantageous to Persia (and the
Sheikh of Mohammerah) than a line recom
mended by the Biitish and Hussian Mediating
Commissioners in 1850, and they have also
urged that the boundary should, so long as it
follows the course of that river, be drawn in mid-
channel, and not along the left (Persian) bank as
recommended by the Mediating Commissioners.
In support of this point of view they advance,
amongst other reasons, the argument of long-
established usage.
The India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , on reconsideration, supported
the views of these Officers in a letter, dated June
1911, from which extracts follow :—
In so far as concerns the wording of the Treaty of
Erzeroum (1847), the Earl of Crewe recognises that it
might be taken to imply the right of Turkey to
control the Shatt-el-Arab from bank to bank, subject
only to free liberty being accorded to Persia to
navigate it.
This view might find support in the suggestions of
the mediating commissioners in 1850, regarding the
boundary in the neighbourhood of Mohammerah. In
this connection I am to solicit reference to the corre
spondence ending with this Office letter of the
26th August, 1910, and to say that the Earl of Crewe
does not altogether share the opinion of his predecessor
on the question therein discussed. That the Turks are
in possession of the commissioners' map, which would
appear to assign to them the whole river, is undoubtedly
inconvenient, as is also the circumstance that the two
Pow T ers pressed the Porte in 1850 to accept the com
missioners' line. But the Porte declined to do so, and
in his Lordship's opinion the situation thus created must
be held to be governed by the communication made
to them in 18(59, when the representatives of the
Powers handed in a map on which no line at all was
drawn. This identic map seems to have been the

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Content

The memorandum concerns the border between Mohammerah [Khorramshahr] and Turkey, and was prepared by Alwyn Parker of the Foreign Office. There are a number of labels at the top of the first page: ‘Persia’, ‘Confidential’ and ‘Section 10’. The memorandum sections are as follows:

  • Part I. A preface (folios 1-5), introducing the points at issue, with two maps, the first being a sketch map of the Mohammerah district, with the proposed Turkish, Persian and mediating commissioner’s lines indicated (folio 2), and a map compiled from plane table surveys by Lieutenant Arnold Talbot Wilson in 1909, with the frontier as defined by the mediating commissioners in 1850 (folio 4);
  • Part II. An historical summary (folios 6-19) of British Government correspondence relating to the border dispute, with the chief focus being on correspondence exchanged during the period 1843-52, around the time of the Treaty of Erzeroum (c.1848). This part contains two copies of a map, a facsimile of a diagram of the disputed area, the original of which was enclosed by Colonel Williams in his despatch of 4 February 1850, indicating Turkish and Persian claims and the mediating commissioner’s proposal (folios 15, 19);
  • Part III. Conclusion (folios 20-28), with a further map (folio 23), an exact copy of that found on folio 4.

The appendices that follow are:

  • A: British assurances given to the Shaikh of Mohammerah, 1899 and 1902-10;
  • B. Protocol of December 1911 (in French) for the proposal settlement of the Turco-Persian frontier question;
  • C. An extract from Sir Austen Henry Layard’s Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia , published in 1887. The extract is from volume 2, pp 431-439;
  • D. Rough notes made by General William Monteith when in Persia, on the frontier of Turkey and Persia, as communicated to the Foreign Office in 1843;
  • E. Observations by Sir Henry Rawlinson on a Persian memorandum relative to the situation of the cities of Mohammerah and Fellahiah [Fallāḥīyah], 1844;
  • F. Text of the Treaty of Erzeroum, 31 May 1847, in English and French translation;
  • G. Copy of a despatch from Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador to Istanbul, to Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary, dated 30 May 1850;
  • H. Copy of a despatch from Lord Palmerston to Lord Broomfield, dated 12 July 1850.
Extent and format
1 file (41 folios, 5 maps)
Arrangement

The memorandum is arranged into three parts, labelled I, II and III, which are followed by eight lettered appendices, A-H. Historic correspondence referred to in the memorandum is referenced in the inside page margin.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio and terminates at the last folio; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

Pagination: The booklet contains an original typed pagination sequence.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎20r] (39/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000028> [accessed 24 November 2024]

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