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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [6r] (11/82)
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.
7
Part II.
Summary of Correspondence, 1843-52.
The enquiry contained in Part II of this
memorandum goes rather beyond the immediate
points at issue ; since, however, the basis of the
proposed reference to The Hague Tribunal is to
be the Treaty of Erzeroum (1848), it may prove
convenient to have the conflicting claims, as they
were advanced and dealt with 70 years ago, set
forth here, as possibly Turkey may now attempt
to reassert those claims.
Sir S. Canning-,
No. 70,
April 27, 1844.
Sir Henry Layard, who was British Ambas
sador in Turkey from 1878 to 1880, has published
in his " Early Adventures" an account of the
earlier negotiations respecting Mohammerah.
His statement is reproduced in full in Appen
dix (C), p. 52 ; but since it is in some respects
an accurate account of what took place ; since it
has been made public—though of a highly confi
dential nature; and since it may be produced,
as the " impartial " evidence of a former British
Ambassador, by the Turkish Government at
The Hague Tribunal, it is of sufficient import
ance to justify the quotation here of certain
extracts, as an introduction to a more detailed
examination of the question :—
Soon after my return to Constantinople .... the
joint mediation offered by the English and Russian
Governments to Turkey and Persia to prevent a war,
which was then on the point of breaking out between
them, was accepted by the two Powers
It "was necessary for the representatives of the
mediating Powers at Constantinople to make a careful
investigation into the claims of the contending parties,
and to propose to them for their acceptance a fair and
equitable arrangement founded upon their respective
rights and interests. Sir Stratford Canning entrusted
me with this duty on his part
The knowledge which I had acquired of the territory
in dispute, and of the history and traditions of the
tribes which inhabited it, proved of much use to me.
I was able to prepare a project of settlement which
appeared to me just to both parties, and warranted by
the proofs which they had produced in support of their
respective claims. It was entirely approved by Sir
Stratford Canning, and sent by him to Lord Aberdeen,
to be communicated to the Eussian Government. He
fully expected that he would speedily receive authority
to submit it to the Porte for its acceptance. The result
of my examination of the evidence and maps furnished
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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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