"مذكرة بشأن الحدود بين المحمرة وتركيا". [و‎‎٢‎٦] (٨٢/٥١)

41
was still to belong wholly and exclusively to
Turkey, and it contended that it merely granted
freedom of passage to Persian vessels in the
projected treaty; and, in order to secure this
right, it was required that no fortifications should
be erected on any part of the river banks remain
ing in the possession of Persia.
Baron Brunnow, r pi ie British and Russian Governments at first
February 13,184 7
Lord Bloomfield, held that the claim of Turkey to the sole sove-
No , ^ teisburgll ' ) ' reignty of the Shatt-el-Arab was inadmissible,
February 15,1847; and Lord Palmerston wrote earlv in 1847 to Her
No 73 • *
March's1 1847. Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburg!!:—
To Lord
Bloomfield, No. 45, I have to state to you, with reference to the pre-
Mauh 3, 1847. tension which has been advanced by the Porte to an
absolute right of sovereignty over the Shatt-el-Arab,
that when the opposite banks of a river belong, as
they do in the case of the lower portion of the Shatt-el-
Arab, to different Powers, it would be contrary to
international usage to give one of the two Powers the
exclusive sovereignty of that portion of the course of
such river, and that therefore this proposal of the
Turkish Government seems to be inadmissible.
Mr. Wellesley
(Constantinople)
No. 64,
February 17,1847
Lord Cowley,
No. 167,
May 17, 1847.
But this despatch of Lord Palmerston's was
written before the text of the treaty, as eventually
signed, had been definitely accepted, and also
before the Foreign Office, in the absence of
telegraphic communication, was aware of the
full bearing and origin of the assurances which,
at a later stage, were embodied in the 44 Explana
tory Note."
The text of the relevant clause of article 2
has been given above (see p. 23): and it is clear
that the Porte would not have agreed to the
treaty had it anticipated that its sovereignty
over the entire waters of the Shatt-el-Arab
would be jeopardised ; indeed, it was probably
in order to provide against such a con
tingency that it requested, and received in the
" Explanatory INote," and in a memorandum of
earlier date, a more clear definition of what was
meant by the anchorage place of Mohammerah.
That, after the Treaty of Erzeroum had been
signed and ratified, Turkey was, according to
the view of the Mediating Powers, entitled to
sovereignty over the entire waters of the Shatt-
el-Arab, is shown by the map prepared by
Colonel Williams in 1849 to indicate the modifi
cations in the frontier effected by the treaty : this
map draws the line not in mid-channel but on
the left (Persian) bank of the Shatt-el-Arab.
[2440 c—10] M