ملف رقم ١٣٧٧ لسنة ١٩٠٥، جزء ١، "الحدود الفارسية البلوشستانية: ترسيم الحدود" [و‎‎١‎٤‎٦] (١٨٨/٦٣)

23
Tehran,
6 th January 1905.
No. 1.
(Confidential.)
Sir,
I have the honour to submit herewith a copy of a telegram which I
* ll 1 _ _ *1 _ X. i- ^ A. -i- y-v 1 ' 1 y-vl
latest communications respecting the Mirjawa boundary, and more especially
his demi-official letter to you of the 1st of November last, as to which my
opinion is, I understand, desired by the Government of India.
I had hoped before the departure of my messenger to-morrow to he in
receipt of a reply from Colonel McMahon whom I had asked for his observa
tions on this telegram, and it is possible that I may still receive one. I hardly
think, however, that any fresh information which he may give me will sub
stantially modify the view which I have expressed in the enclosed message.
So far as J understand the situation, an exact delimitation of the frontier
line laid down in the Holdich agreement will not only not strengthen our claim
to Miriawa and Duzdab, both of which Captain Webb Ware believed he
could include within our territory, hut will give us a line—the blue line
of Colonel McMahon’s map—which would he less satisfactory than the supposed
present one, inasmuch as it will, amongst other things, bring the Persian frontier
to~Ihe very doors of our fort at Eobat Killa, and perhaps to a point east of our
present post at Padaha. Colonel McMahon proposes, in lieu of it, a line marked
in red on his imp which he does not believe he could induce his Pers.an
colleague, the Yamin-i-Nizam, to recommend to the Persian Government, but
which, he thinks, I might perhaps persuade the Ain-ed-Dowleh to accept.
There are two ways by which I might, I presume, try to carry my point.
I mio-ht contend that the red line was the one really in harmony with the
intentions of the Holdich agreement, and trust to the ignorance and indifference
of the Persian Ministers. Or I might approach the latter in a more straight
forward fashion; point out that the text of the agreement did not correspond
with the known intention of the Commissioners, and ask them to agree to the
red line on the ground that the rectification involved in it, though of no conse-
/>To Colonel McMahon.
1st January.
addressed on the 1 st instant to Colonel
McMahon embodying my views on his