'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations' [‎225v] (458/540)

Article 6 (e).—We consider it advisable to lay down precisely the lights and
buoys which are handed over to the commission, and that a schedule shou e
Article 6 (/).—We considered whether the insertion of the word Turkish
before 4 ' banks '' would be expedient; but the convention can only apply to places
under Turkish jurisdiction, and the limitation therefore seems unnecessary. We
have used banks ^ in the plural because on the higher reaches of the river both
banks are Turkish. _ • • i • i o
Articles 8, 9, 10 are a re-arrangement and expansion of the original articles 8
and 9, the changes having been made especially with a view to strengthening the
provisions against discrimination.
Article 11. —We consider it inadvisable that the commission should have the
option of borrowing from any Power other than Great Britain or Turkey, since
foreign Powers might make the advance of capital a pretext for claiming represen
tation on the commission.
Article 15.—We do not consider it imperative to insist upon the umpire
being nominated by the British Institute of Civil Engineers, and we suggest that
we might, if advisable, concede this point in the course of negotiation.
Article 15.—Understanding that the frontier between Turkey and Moham-
merah is to be laid down in some other document, we have inserted a saving
clause which will preclude the commission from exercising,any jurisdiction on
the Persian bank, or in Persian waters, without the consent of Persia or the Shaikh
of Mohammerah. f
Article 19.— This is taken, with a few slight modifications, from the model
commercial treaty. We have suggested twenty-one years as the period of the
agreement, on the ground that it may be advantageous that the question ot its
renewal should coincide with that of a possible renewal of the customs increase,
which we understand His Majesty's Government intend to agree to only m the first
instance for a period of seven years.
We have omitted the original article 18, which was as follows : —
<f The Imperial Ottoman Government will offer no objection to the continu
ance of the custom whereby the war-ships of His Britannic Majesty freely ascend
the Shatt-el-Arab as far as Kurna,"
on the ground that it may be awkward to raise discussion respecting a custom
which has been acquiesced in, if not explicitly recognised, for a great many years,
and which His Majesty's Government could in no case abandon.
We feel that there is some risk that Turkey will claim that the present an
chorage of Mohammerah, which is on the Shatt-el-Arab, is within the limits of
Turkish sovereignty, though outside the Turkish frontier as locally observed. It
would be desirable, therefore, that the agreement in which the Mohammerah
frontier is laid down should specifically recognise that the Mohammerah anchorage
is within the Persian sphere.
We have not inserted a clause to the effect that the British member of the
commission should represent the Shaikh of Mohammerah's interests, since it
appears more suitable to provide for this in some covering document at the time
when the draft Convention is transmitted to the Turkish representatives.
We have, &c.
EDMOND J. W. SLADE.
A. HIRTZEL.
GEO. J STANLEY.
A. G. DALLAS.
C. J. B. HURST.
PERCY ASHLEY.
ALWYN PARKER.