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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [22v] (44/82)
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.
wLicli passed at the time of tlie Treaty of
Erzeroum—a correspondence which relates, in
particular, to Mohammerah—a refusal on the
part of His Majesty's Government now to
countenance a reference of the Mohammerah
question to the Hague, or to abide by an adverse
award, would he an attitude perhaps difficult to
justify as wholly consistent.
The argument advanced by the
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.
that the Mediating Commissioners' line cannot
now be appealed to, owing to events which have
subsequently taken place, seems therefore diffi
cult, if not impossible, to sustain as a purely
judicial proposition, so long as that line stands
out as a strict interpretation of the Treaty of
1847 and the " Explanatory Note," or indeed
merelv of the former instrument alone. It would
seem to follow that what I have termed the
"zone'' argument in the
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.
letter is
unlikely to prevail before the Hague Tribunal
unless the authority of the Mediating Commis
sioners' line can be undermined by a clear and
convincing demonstration that it was not in
point of fact a strict interpretation of the express
terms, as distinct from the supposed object, of
the Treaty and the Explanatory Note."
It is therefore desirable to examine the
motives which determined the line recommended
by the Mediating Commissioners : before doing
so, it will not be out of place to remark that
Turkey had claimed every inch of territory
above the actual town of Mohammerah, while
Persia had claimed the whole left bank of the
Shatt-el-Arab above Mohammerah (the Haffar
Channel) to a point some twenty miles or so
above Bussorah.
The independent evidence at the disposal of
the Mediating Commissioners had been furnished
in the main by Major Kawlinson and his pre
decessor at Bagdad: they had both indicated
that the lands on the left bank of the Shatt-el-
Arab above Mohammerah were, for the most part,
laid out in gardens and date groves dependent on
Bussorah, and Major llawlinson had, after a care
ful inspection, reported in 1844 that about three
miles of territory above Mohammerah (thellafTar
Channel) was dependent on Persia, that then for
four miles there was land inhabited by a Persian
tribe (the Chaabces) but paying revenue to
Turkey, and thence right into Bussorah the
entire territory was possessed by Turkish tribes.
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.’ [22v] (44/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x00002d> [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