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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎3r] (5/82)

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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. .

Transcription

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attitude on the part of Itis Majesty's Govern
ment would be conducive to tlie perpetuation,
much to be desired, of the local status quo, the
maintenance of which, moreover, had been agreed
upon—though merely as a temporary expedient
pending a final settlement—in a protocal signed
by Turkey and Persia in 1869.
Consul McDouall
(Mohammerah),
No. 65,
June 12, 1909.
Sir C. Ford
(Constantinople),
No. 526 a,
November 14,
1893.
Lieutenant Wilson's views were generally
approved by His Majesty's Minister at Tehran.
His Majesty's Government, however, did not
feel that it would be prudent to adopt the full
suggestions of that officer; in arriving at this
conclusion they had regard to the complicated
nature of the negotiations which preceded and
followed the ratification of the Treaty of
Erzeroum in 1848, and they were not unin
fluenced by the knowledge that, as recently as
1893, Turkey, relying upon the wording of that
treaty, had attempted to revive claims to the
ownership of the district, as distinct from the
town, of Mohammerab. The reply to His
Majesty's Minister at Tehran was accordingly as
follows :—
To Sir G. Barclay,
No. 146,
October 27, 1909.
While His Majesty's Government have no desire to
disturb the frontier status quo as locally observed, and
which, they are well aware, has never precisely
coincided with the line as drawn in 1850 by the
mediating commissioners, and indeed as subsequently
accepted by the Persian Government, they would
hesitate to approve Lieutenant Wilson's contention
that the line as defined in 1850 was cancelled by any
subsequent declaration of Great Britain and Russia.
That line was, after an exhaustive examination of the
conflicting claims of Persia and Turkey, defined by the
mediating commissioners as an equitable compromise,
and such evidence as there is goes to show that it was
upheld by the later commission which met at Constan
tinople in 1875. His Majesty's Government could not,
therefore, formally support the Sheikh of Mohammerah,
in claiming that his frontier extends beyond that line,
except after consultation with the Russian Government
. . . . , and as the result of an agreement with the
Turkish Government, who are in possession of a copy
of the map of 1850.
Consul-General
Cox (Bushire),
No. 2, Political,
May 8, 1910.
The British Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , on
learning the terms of this reply, supported a
representation from Lieutenant Wilson, urging
His Majesty's Government to go further and to
disregard the line of the mediating commis
sioners of 1850 and adhere to the boundary as

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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.’ [‎3r] (5/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000006> [accessed 21 November 2024]

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