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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [17v] (34/82)
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.
28
Colonel Sheil, thou^li considering the argu
ments of the Persian Government to be in the
main well-founded, observed that, on the whole,
the advantage and justice of the decision of the
Mediating Commissioners seemed so obvious that
he had no hesitation in pressing its acceptance
on the Persian Government.
The Persian Government eventually accepted Colonel Sheil to
the delimitation of the frontier according to the
opinion of the Mediating Commissioners, but on
condition that the portion of the tribe of Chaab
to the west of their line of demarcation should
be transferred to Persia. That portion was by
the Persian Government estimated at 20,000
souls, and by Colonel Sheil at a smaller number.
With reference to this condition, Colonel Colonel Williams
Williams furnished some additional information ^ptel^ 1 ^ 1 ^ S l7^ ll,
as to the motives for the decision of the iSoO.
Mediating Commissioners ; and, inasmuch as the
lands in question lie between the 1850 line (that
of the Mediating Commissioners) and the
boundary as locally observed at the present time
(1912) I venture to quote the following passage :—
The decision we (the Mediating Commissioners)
came to on the point of departure from the Sbatt-el-
Arab was founded on a geographical point unknown to (^ ee map at p. 2o.)
those who framed the Treaty of Erzeroum (1848), and
which was clearly stated in the protocols drawn up at
Moharnmerah, viz., that the large channel on the west
side of the island, opposite to Sheikh Jabir s fort at
Failieh, marked in Colonel Chesney s maps as the
channel of navigation from the sea with Bussorah, is
now closed except to small boats, and that at the
present moment all the traders bound to Bussorah are
obliged to take the narrow channel to the east ot the
island in question, which forces them under the musketry
of the fort in question. If, therefore, we had gone up
the river twelve miles, the point to which individuals
of the Chaab tribe have crept (1 believe in very recent
times), we should have placed the port of Bussorah
at the mercy of this not very sciupulous Arab tribe,
and thus, in placing Persia in the possession of her
desired port and anchorage of Mohammerah, we should
have denied to the opposite party the same security for
its port and city of Bussorah.
I can see no reason why the Chaab about t ailieh
should not, if they like, rejoin their clan; for they do
not come under even doubtful allegiance, being a portion
of the Chaab or Persian tribe.
These reasons Colonel Sheil urged upon the Colonel^ Sheil,
Persian Government as conclusive | the equal December 18,
protection of access to Mohammerah and Bussorah 18o() -
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.’ [17v] (34/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000023> [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