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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [25v] (50/82)
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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
Tribunal is likely to endorse the principle of
uti possidetis, especially in so far as possession
only dates from, and not prior to, the Treaty of
Erzeroum (1848).
Now the only impartial evidence as to what
ought to he considered the status quo at the date
of the Treaty of Erzeroum, and of where Turkish
territory ended and Persian began, is afforded by
the line drawn by the Mediating Commissioners in
1850, and therefore I submit that the efforts of His
Majesty's Government should be directed to the
acceptance of that line as the basis of negotiation,
except in so far as it can be demonstrated not to
have been in strict conformity with the express
terms of the Treaty: it is clear that the
Mediating Commissioners made a departure
irom the express terms of the Treaty when they
drew the line to the east of Sheikh Jabir's fort
(at Failieh) instead of a few miles to the west.
If we do not adopt the Mediating Commis
sioners' line, with this slight modification, as the
basis of negotiation, there seems some degree of
danger that Turkey may revive some of her
earlier extravagant claims. It seems incon
ceivable that that line should not weigh, as
impartial evidence, with the Hague Tribunal to
such an extent as to preclude that danger; and
it accordingly appears to be to the interest of
Great Britain to uphold the line except only in
so far as it does demonstrably deviate from the
treaty expressis verbis.
So much for the hrst question—that of the
precise place where the boundary should leave
the river; the second question is, whether the
boundary, while following the course of the
river, should be traced in mid-channel or on the
Persian bank.
In 1844 Sir Stratford Canning wrote that the Sir Stratford
Persians could not navigate any part of the November i,"isu.
Shatt-el-Arab without being liable to the duties
levied on shipping and merchandise by the
Ottoman authorities.
In the negotiations which preceded the Treaty To Lord
of Erzeroum, Turkey took very great pains to Is^Feterlburgh),
record her assertion of sovereign rights over the No. 256,
entire waters of the Shatt-el-Arab, and, although sir Stratford 0
there is no clause in the treatv to that effect, Canning, No. 47,
^ March 19 1846*
the Porte did maintain to the British and No. 51,
Russian representatives at Constantinople that it
only agreed to negotiate about Mohammerah on (Constantinuple),
the understanding that the course of the river November 3,1846
About this item
- 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 View the complete information for this record
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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [25v] (50/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000033> [accessed 28 November 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/18/B380
- Title
- ‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’
- Pages
- 1r:1v, 3r:14v, 16r:18v, 20r:30v, 33r:41v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence