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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [27r] (53/82)
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.
secondly, by the fact that in 1850 the Mediating
Commissioners endorsed the claim advanced
by the Ottoman Commissioner to exclusive
ownership.
As regards British interests in this matter, it
will be recollected that we proposed to the Porte
in July 1911, as part of the general settlement of
our respective interests in the region of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, that a small Commission, consist-*
ing of a Turkish member, a British member, and
an engineer, should be appointed to control
navigation in the Shatt-el-Arab. In the infor
mal negotiations which have taken place during
the last few days, the Turkish delegates have
intimated, on behalf of their Government, that
Turkey is prepared to agree to this Commission
in principle, subject to its being nominally
Ottoman ; subject to a Convention being con
cluded regulating, in accordance with the
general requirements of shipping, all points of
importance; and subject to it being definitely
agreed that there should be only Turkish and
British representation on the Commission.
Their alleged reason for wishing the Commis
sion to be nominally Ottoman was to exclude
the applications which might be made for
representation from inconvenient quarters if it
were international.
It seems then that British interests have
nothing to gain from pressing the argument
medium filum aqua.
It is true that the Anglo-Turkish negotiations
for a riverain commission may break down : but
even so, the position of His Majesty's Govern
ment in upholding British shipping interests
would not be appreciably weakened by sacrificing
the Persian claim, which in any case does not
seem a strong one, to mid-channel.
The conclusions to which this enquiry leads
are then that His Majesty's Government would
be well-advised :—
1. To urge as a general basis of nego
tiation the Mediating Commissioners' line of
1850.
2. To urge the strict observance of that iine
from the sea to Eailieh, thus making the frontier
the left bank of Abadan Island and not the
mid-channel of the Shatt-el-Arab.
3. To urge the modification of that line at
Pailieh so as to include GJ miles more territory
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.’ [27r] (53/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000036> [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