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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [41r] (81/82)
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.
stipulation in regard to the Bamisliere Channel by which that island is separated from
the districts claimed by the Turkish commissioner. The Porte took very great pains
to record its assertion of sovereign rights over the entire waters of the Shatt-el-Arab,
by which stream the western side of the island is bounded ; but it made no stipulation
in regard to the stream which bounds the eastern bank.
The possibility of such an inconvenient arrangement as that now contended for by
the Turkish commissioner could not have been contemplated, for that arrangement
would have interposed between the Persian island El Khizr and the continental
frontier of Persia a narrow slip of country wholly separated from the rest of the
Turkish dominions; or, if the territorial claim of Turkey in that quarter was to be
admitted in its full extent, the effect of the arrangement would be to separate the town
of Mohammerah and the island of El Khizr from the rest of the Persian dominions.
On the other hand, the claim of the Persian commissioner to the extensive district
between the Kerkha River and the Haffar Canal which rests on the fact that the
Kerkha has its source in the Persian boundary, cannot be sustained on such a reason.
The question therefore to be resolved seems to be: to which of the two countries,
Turkey, or Persia, the tribes by which the district in dispute is occupied properly
belong ; and on this point the Turkish and Persian commissioners are at variance.
The mediating commissioners, without pronouncing an opinion on the last
question, have proposed a line which they appear to consider best calculated to secure
the essential interests of both parties.
It is an object of considerable importance to Persia with a view to the prosperity
of Mohammerah, that both banks of the Haffar Canal should belong to Persia. On
the other hand, the Turkish Government are understood to consider it essential for the
welfare of Bussorah on the west bank of the Shatt-el-Arab, and of Korna, that not
only the channel but also both banks of that river above the Haffar Canal should
belong wholly to Turkey. The mediating commissioners propose to provide for both
these objects by running a line, which vv ill divide the territory in dispute in nearly
equal parts. The line claimed by the Turkish commissioners, in its prolongation
towards the north-west crosses the Karun River above the point where that river falls
into the Haffar Canal, and that line is carried on to two points, apparently buildings,
which are situated somewhat to the south of the town of Hawizah on the Kerkha
lliver. The mediating commissioners propose that the boundary-line between the two
countries should run up along the east bank of the Shatt-el-Arab for a short distance
above the Haffar Canal until it reaches a small stream which falls into that river ; and
that the line should from thence be drawn directly to the points reached, as above
stated, by the Turkish line, and thence directly to the town of Hawizali. Thus
everything to the west of the proposed line, and consequently the east bank of the
Shatt-el-Arab, with the exception of a small portion of that bank which can be of no
value to Turkey, would belong to Turkey, and everything to the east of that line and
consequently the north bank of the Haffar Canal would belong to Persia.
Her Majesty's Government conceive that if the two mediating Courts should be
called upon to pronounce an opinion on the respective claims of the two Mahommedan
Powers, they can do no better than recommend those Powers to adopt the line
proposed by the British and Russian commissioners ; and I have to instruct your
Lordship to communicate on these matters with the Russian Government, and to
ascertain whether the opinion of that Government coincides with the opinion of Her
Majesty's Government as stated in this despatch.
I have, &c.
PALMERSTON.
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.’ [41r] (81/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000052> [accessed 21 November 2024]
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- 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