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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [11r] (21/82)
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.
17
Mr. R. Curzon
and Colonel
Williams, No 30,
August 5, 1843.
Colonel Sheil
to British
CoinmisBioners at
Erzeroum,
August 29, 1843,
and No 1 ( J,
September 27,
1843.
(See also a
Memorandum by
Mr. Taylour
Thomson in
Colonel Sheil's
despatch No. 56
of May 14, 1844,
to Lord Aberdeen.)
Report of
Ninth Conference,
December 19,
1843.
Colonel Williams,
No. 45,
October 15, 1843.
Stratford
Canning, No. 70,
April 27, 1844.
Sir Stratford Canning observes that all these
persons (including the Koweitis !) were Turkish
subiects residing at a distance from Moham-
merah.
As proof of territorial claims, Turkey produced
certain deeds of sale, court rolls, and deeds of
foundation in mortmain. These documents bore,
in the opinion of the Mediating Commissioners,
the marks of antiquity; but Colonel Sheil, Her
Majesty's Minister at Tehran, pointed out that
even if the authenticity of these documents—
none of which was of more recent date than
1766—were admitted, they merely proved a
temporary possession, and that similar docu
ments might be, and had been, produced to
support a claim to Tabreez and Kasvin, which,
in consequence of the defeat of the Persian
armies, were known to have been held for a short
period by Turkey.
Most of the European maps produced,
including that of Macdonald Kinneir, adopted
the Shatt-el-Arab as the boundary between
the two Empires. The Turkish Plenipotentiary
somewhat unintelligibly cited also the geo
graphical work of Macdonald Kinneir to the
effect that Abadan Island had formerly been
in the possession of Turkey, but having been
conquered by the Chaab Sheikh Salman in
the middle of the 18th century had remained in
the possession of his successors. His object was
presumably to establish the original ownership
of Turkey, but the quotation served also to
confirm the duration of the severance of Turkey's
connection.
The British Commissioners at Erzeroum, Mr.
Curzon and Colonel (afterwards Sir Penwick)
Williams, basing their opinions on the evidence
produced.at the Conferences, and on a paper fur
nished by General Monteith, who had long been
employed in Persia, considered that the balance
of probabilities respecting Mohammerah was
immeasurably in favour of Turkey. But, at
the time of writing, they had not yet seer
Major Bawlinson's memorandum, which gave a
totally different complexion to the matter.
Sir Stratford Canning's view was summed u 1 ?
in the following sentence :—
The whole results iu a presumption that the original
territorial right is in favour of Turkey, and the right of
conquest and possession is in favour of Persia.
[2440 c—10] F
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