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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [14r] (27/82)
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.
23
Lord Cowley,
No. 108,
March 17, 1848.
Lord Cowley,
No. 115,
March 21, 1848.
as the sole means of preventing failure, lie with
drew his objections, and, protesting, the while,
w r ant of authority, acceded as required to the
demands of the Porte in the form of an official note
addressed to the mediating Representatives.
It was still with the greatest difficulty, and
ostensibly as a matter of favour to the British
Government, that the Porte expressed itself
satisfied with this issue; nor did it then consent
to ratify the Treaty without requiring and
obtaining from the representatives of the mediat
ing Governments an "Explanatory Note," em
bodying in a more formal manner the assurances
they had previously given.
Thus was the Treaty ratified at Constantinople
in March 1848.
The effect of these transactions was to render
the work of delimitation impossible, and, after
more than two years wasted in barren discussions,
to restrict the labours of the Frontier Commission
(composed of Turkish, Persian, British, and
Russian Delegates), which was now appointed,
to the mere acquisition of topographical and
statistical information.
In order to appreciate the extent to which the
" Explanatory Note" affected the terms of the
Treaty, and the conflict of pretensions which
ensued, it is necessary to contrast the provisions
of either instrument, in so far as they refer to
Mohammerah.
The following are the Treaty stipulations:—
Article 2 (Extract).
The Ottoman Governraent formally undertakes that
the town and port of Mohammerah, the island of El
Khizr, the anchorage place, and the lands on the
eastern, that is the left, bank of the Shatt-el-Arab,
which are in possession of tribes recognised as subject
to Persia, shall be in possession of the Persian Govern
ment in full sovereignty. Besides this, Persian vessels
shall have the right to navigate in full liberty the
Shatt-el-Arab from the place where it enters the sea
to the point of junction of the frontiers of the two
parties.
Article 8 (Extract).
The two high Powers will leave once for all, to the
free-will of the tribes, whose suzerain is unknown and
concerning whom there is a dispute, the right to
choose and designate the places where they will
henceforward always reside; and it is agreed that
the tribes whose allegiance is known will be forced
to return to the territory of the State to which they
belong.
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.’ [14r] (27/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x00001c> [accessed 21 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