File 5924/1920 Pt 3 ‘Persia: Debt to H.M.G. Private claims against Persian Govt.’ [‎439r] (25/216)

attached thereto, providing for the reference of the
claims to a suitable tribunal, has been under considera
tion.
3. A difficulty has, however, been presented from
the outset by the necessity of so drsifting the protocol
as to prevent the manufacture of new counter-claims by
the Persians, and also, if possible, so as to exclude
the re-opening of questions on which a British Prise
oourt or the Privy Council have already given judgment,
i.e. in particular the claim of a certain Atychides, the
one big Persian claim already presented to us, which has
already formed the subject of a judgment in a British
Prise Court. It was hoped that the first of these objects
at least could, be attained by providing that the commission
should be competent to deal only with claims presented to
either party before some specified date in the past.
4. A preliminary draft protocol ms accordingly pre
pared at the end of October, and 'was discussed with the
Legal Advisers to the Foreign Office. In the course of
this discussion various disquieting facts were established.
5. In the first place it appears that there is hardly
a single claim about which we have enough information to
say definitely that it cun be regarded as water-tight from
the point of view of international law. It may indeed
prove quite impossible to support whole cate -pries of
claims on the ordinary principles of international law, so
that further investigation may lead to a complete modifica
tion of the position. Our information about all the claims,
with the possible exception of the doubtfully sound Persian
Railways Syndicate claim, is in fact incomplete