"مذكرة بشأن الحدود بين المحمرة وتركيا". [ظ‎‎١‎٦] (٨٢/٣٢)

island of 111 Khizr, but not an inch of the sur
rounding territory.
He claimed, in fact, not only all the territory
immediately surrounding the town of Moham-
merah, hut also the extensive country to the east
of the island of El Khizr, and he justified his
demand by the terms of the Explanatory Note,
though, in point of fact, that document was
intended by its authors merely to refer to lands
above Mohammerah on the Shatt-el-Arab.
As an offset to these exorbitant demands, the
Persian Commissioner put in his claim as indi
cated by the blue line on the same map, on the
ground that the country so defined was actually
occupied, and had been occupied for untold years,
by Persian tribes.
The Mediating Commissioners pointed to the
terms of the Treaty as being obviously opposed to
the isolation of strips of territory belonging to
either State within the limits of the other,
involving, as it would, the absurdity of a triple
boundary to each.
Colonel Williams, in a despatch dated the Enclosure 1 in
_ , ,, , n n , Sir Stratford
4th Eebruary, ISoO, reported as follows to canning's No. 110,
Sir Stratford Canning : — March 31,1850.
Without discussing, in conference, the merits ot the
explanatory note upon which the Porte founds its
pretensions, we have sufficiently marked our estimation
of it, by the line drawn for the future boundary; my
colleague and myself believe that the note has had an
interpretation put on it by the Porte which was never
contemplated by the parties who drew it up ; its object,
as 1 understood at the time, teas to calm the suspicions of
the Divan relative to Persian pretensions towards Korna on
the Shatt-el-Arab
With reference to the line decided on by my
colleague and myself for the consideration of Your
Excellency and M. de Titow, we have arrived at that
conclusion after a careful inspection of the Shatt-el-
Arab and the waters flowing into it whilst on board
the " Nitocris" steamer, Avhere we were fortunate in
having the practical knowledge of Captain Jones, her
commander ; and, in combating Turkish pretensions to
the east of Mohammerah and the island of El Khizr, we
have carefully abstained from admitting Persian claims
to the islands in the Shatt-el-Arab, all of which lie to
the west of those two places :—
The enclosed diagram will, I trust, demonstrate the
justice of our award. Beginning from the mouth of
the Shatt-el-Arab, the proposed line (marked in red)
runs along the western bank of the island of El Ivhizr,
crosses the mouth of the HafFar Canal, and then
up the Shatt-el-Arab to the mouth of the Abu Djudei
Canal, a distance of a geographical league [it is