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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [26v] (52/82)
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.
42
It is true that in 1850 the Persian Commis
sioner did claim medium Ji/um aqucc as against the
claim of the Turkish Commissioner to sovereignty
over the whole river; but the Mediating Com
missioners supported the Ottoman Commissioner
on this point, thereby affording evidence of the
true purport of the treaty provision ; and the
recommendation of the Mediating Commissioners
was afterwards endorsed bv the British and
*
Russian Governments.
The treaty secures to Persia full freedom of
navigation on the lower portion of the river ; but
the Porte as recently as 1911 urged that this, on
the principle of construction unius expressio
exclusio alterius, in itself implies Turkish owner
ship of the entire waters.
It would seem that the onlv consideration which
«/
could be urged in favour of medium jiluni aqutE as
the boundarv, is that the Bamishere Channel,
which at the time of the Treaty formed an alterna
tive means of access to the Karun, is now no
longer navigable ; but it is a moot point how far
this change would be held to modify the legal
position.
I assume that, if the case goes to The Hague
Tribunal, Turkey might present her claim to
ownership of the entire waters of the Shatt-el-
Arab somewhat on the following lines ;—
(«) Expressum facit cessare taciturn : the treaty
gave Persia freedom of navigation and, by the
very fact of granting liberty to navigate, the
possession by Persia of any other right is im
plicitly denied.
(h) In regard to territorial possession, the treaty
allotted to Persia the town and port of Moham-
merah, the island of El Khizr, the anchorage
place, and, conditionally, certain lands on the
left bank of the Shatt-el-Arab. But the treaty
did not allot to Persia anything else in the
Mohammerah district either claimed or owned
by Turkey.
That Turkey claimed full sovereignty over the
Shatt-el-Arab was emphasised in the negotiations
preceding the conclusion of the treaty; that she
did own the river prior to the conclusion of the
treaty is proved, Jirstiy, by the fact that the
Persians could not navigate any part of it without
being liable to the duties levied on shipping and
merchandise by the Ottoman authorities; and.
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.’ [26v] (52/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000035> [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