File 4880/1913 Pt 2 'Turco-Persian Frontier Commission: protocol of 1913' [‎176r] (219/499)

No. 1.
Mr. Marling to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received August 27.)
{No. 733.)
Sir, Constantinople, August 21, 1913.
WITH reference to my despatch No. 720 of the 14th instant, I have the honour
to transmit to you herewith copies of the Russian and British notes on the subject of
the Turco-Persian frontier from Mount Ararat to Djebel Guerebi, some miles south-east
of Mandeli, together with Sheets 5 and 6 of the reduction of the Identic Map and a
small sketch map of the district immediately south of Mount Ararat prepared at the
Russian Embassy, intended to illustrate it. You will see that mutatis mutandis the
notes are practically identical, the only discrepancy in the text which is perhaps worth
calling attention to is in the substitution in paragraph 5 in the English text of “ le point
nord du trace indique dans la declaration faite a Londres le 29 juillet ” instead of the
Russian text of “ le point nord du trace britannique,” an alteration made for the sake of
clearness, and agreed to by M. Minorsky.
As regards the maps, M. Minorsky informs me that there is a trifling inaccuracy in
Sheet 5, where the line in Serkale is shown as following the heights to the north of the
stream, instead of the course of the stream itself as stated in the note. The inaccuracy
is a trifling one, but it seems as well to place it on record in case the point should be
raised in the course of the work of the Demarcation Commission. M. Minorsky
might have corrected the error in the copies of the map he was preparing for this
embassy, but as the Russian note with the map containing the error had already
been sent into the Porte he thought it better to avoid possible confusion and to allow
the error to stand.
The variations between the draft note enclosed in my despatch above mentioned
and the note as presented to the Porte have been made at the instance of the * urkish
Minister of War in consequence of the interview between him and M. Minorsky, as
arranged for when M. de Giers and I met his Excellency and the Grand Vizier on
the 13th instant. They affect only that part of the line north of Zohab in which we
take no special interest, and do not materially alter the original draft. At this
interview the Minister of War did not press his point as to the identity of the Ab-i-Neft
with the Zelezerd River, and it was understood that the point will be left to the
Demarcation Commission on the spot.
As regards the suggestion made in your telegram No. 411 of the 19th instant, that
a statement explanatory of the agreement which has been reached between Turkey on
one side and ourselves and the Russians on the other, should be prepared here to enable
the two legations at Tehran to obtain the assent of the Persian Government to it, I have
had some conversation with M. Minorsky on the subject, and we are agreed that as
regards that part of the frontier which has been discussed at Constantinople any such
statement could be nothing more than a recapitulation of the arguments used in the
various notes which have been exchanged between the two embassies and the Sublime
Porte. Copies of all these documents have been sent home, and will no doubt be in the
possession of the two legations at Tehran. By far the greater portion of this part of
the frontier, be., from Ararat to the north part of Zohab, is of special interest to Russia,
and the Russian Legation at Tehran will no doubt be in a position to explain and
defend against Persian criticism the various arrangements. Defence, however, seems
scarely necessary, as, thanks to Russian influence, Turkey has been induced to recognise
the principle of the status quo frontier, and to withdraw her troops from the districts
west of Lake Urmia, a result which Persia could never have obtained by herself.
As regards the frontier from Hawizeh to the sea, the negotiations which led to
the declaration of the 29th July last were conducted in London, and it is to be presumed
that His Majesty’s Minister at Tehran is as well informed as this Embassy of the
manner in which the agreement therein recorded was reached. So far as I am aware,
there is not in this case any more than in that of the northern part of the frontier
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