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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [26r] (51/82)
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.
41
was still to belong wholly and exclusively to
Turkey, and it contended that it merely granted
freedom of passage to Persian vessels in the
projected treaty; and, in order to secure this
right, it was required that no fortifications should
be erected on any part of the river banks remain
ing in the possession of Persia.
Baron Brunnow, r pi ie British and Russian Governments at first
February 13,184 7
Lord Bloomfield, held that the claim of Turkey to the sole sove-
No , ^ teisburgll ' ) ' reignty of the Shatt-el-Arab was inadmissible,
February 15,1847; and Lord Palmerston wrote earlv in 1847 to Her
No 73 • *
March's1 1847. Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburg!!:—
To Lord
Bloomfield, No. 45, I have to state to you, with reference to the pre-
Mauh 3, 1847. tension which has been advanced by the Porte to an
absolute right of sovereignty over the Shatt-el-Arab,
that when the opposite banks of a river belong, as
they do in the case of the lower portion of the Shatt-el-
Arab, to different Powers, it would be contrary to
international usage to give one of the two Powers the
exclusive sovereignty of that portion of the course of
such river, and that therefore this proposal of the
Turkish Government seems to be inadmissible.
Mr. Wellesley
(Constantinople)
No. 64,
February 17,1847
Lord Cowley,
No. 167,
May 17, 1847.
But this despatch of Lord Palmerston's was
written before the text of the treaty, as eventually
signed, had been definitely accepted, and also
before the Foreign Office, in the absence of
telegraphic communication, was aware of the
full bearing and origin of the assurances which,
at a later stage, were embodied in the 44 Explana
tory Note."
The text of the relevant clause of article 2
has been given above (see p. 23): and it is clear
that the Porte would not have agreed to the
treaty had it anticipated that its sovereignty
over the entire waters of the Shatt-el-Arab
would be jeopardised ; indeed, it was probably
in order to provide against such a con
tingency that it requested, and received in the
" Explanatory INote," and in a memorandum of
earlier date, a more clear definition of what was
meant by the anchorage place of Mohammerah.
That, after the Treaty of Erzeroum had been
signed and ratified, Turkey was, according to
the view of the Mediating Powers, entitled to
sovereignty over the entire waters of the Shatt-
el-Arab, is shown by the map prepared by
Colonel Williams in 1849 to indicate the modifi
cations in the frontier effected by the treaty : this
map draws the line not in mid-channel but on
the left (Persian) bank of the Shatt-el-Arab.
[2440 c—10] M
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.’ [26r] (51/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000034> [accessed 24 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