'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations' [‎165v] (336/540)

conference of Erzeroum, but they have also had recourse to the great store of
information collected by the well-known savant Major (afterwards Sir Henry)
Rawlinson, who was well acquainted with the country, and made a profound study
of the territorial position in the Mohammerah region, based upon historical facts and
the deeds of title relating to each particular plot of land. Moreover, much information,
which was not at the disposal of the Commissioners at Erzeroum, has been traced m
the voluminous records of the East India Company, who carried oa direct trade with
Bussorah from the year 1635. These records are especially illuminating m regard to
the conditions which actually prevailed on the waters of the Shatt-el-Arab during
the 17th and 18th centuries. . , in
The accompanying maps indicate the line of the frontier as it has been local y
observed for a century or more. For facility of reference, the line may be tollowed,
firstlv, from the neighbourhood of Hawizeh to the point where it strikes the Chatt
el-Arab, and, secondly, along the course of that river until it reaches the sea.
By reference to the accompanying map No. 1, the village of bnuaib wili be
observed at a point 15f miles on a bearing of 8 degrees north of west from Hawizeh .
it is a settled village of the Beni Salih, containing some 500 inhabitants living m
permanent dwellings. The whole country, comprised approximately in a triangle
formed by lines joining Hawizeh, Shu'aib, and Kuskh-i-Basri, is regularly occupied
and cultivated by-the tribes of Beni Salih and Beni Sakain, who are not nomadic, m
the ordinary sense of the term, but are settled inhabitants.
These tribes, who exclusively inhabit, and where possible cultivate, the triangular
tract above referred to, have belonged from time immemorial to Hawizeh, which has
been a recognised district of the Persian province of Khuzistan or Arabistan for, at any
rate, four centuries. They pay revenue to their tribal sheikhs, who formerly passed
it on in tribute to the " Maula " ruler of Hawizeh, who in turn paid it to the Persian
Government, but, since 1902, this tribute has been collected through the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of
the Sheikh of Mohammerah.
To the eastward of the marsh on which the village of Shu'aib is situated, and
southwards, as far as human occupation prevails or is possible, there is not the
slightest sign of Turkish influence or jurisdiction, nor of Turkish status.
The British Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. has recently visited the Hawizeh district,
and his investigations have served to confirm the information which His Majesty's
Government already possessed. Apart from the sheikhs and tribesmen of the Beni
Salih and Beni Sakain, Sir Percy Cox came in contact with many old inhabitants
who could speak with long experience in regard to the territorial status quo. The view
universally expressed as to the frontier was as follows :—-
<^1. That whatever is the western boundary of the Hawizeh is, ipso facto, the
frontier of Persia: in other words, that the Hawizeh district is included within the
-confines of Persia.
2. That the "Hawizeh district" comprises those lands which are regularly
occupied and cultivated by tribes belonging to it, and paying revenue to Persia.
3. That, on the above premises, the boundary locally recognised is that shown
by a green line on map No. 1. It will be noticed that the line (which is formed by
the edge of the marsh, and is thus a natural frontier), after crossing the Ghor-el-Azem,
eventually cuts the main channel of the marsh just west of Shu'aib, continues in a
southerly direction until it reaches a point due west of Kuskh-i-Basri, whence it breaks
back to that place, and then proceeds direct to the Shatt-el-Arab at Di'aiji. The reason
why Kuskh-i-Basri is recognised as an angle of the boundary is referable to the
existence of a winter lake of rain water at Yafair.; the limit of cultivation and
occupation by tribesmen under Hawizeh in this direction is regulated by the distance
from their water supply (Yafair), at which they can safely dwell and keep their flocks,
and this limit is considered to be reached at Kuskh-i-Basri, where the ruins of an
extensive building of great age form a convenient landmark.
His Majesty's Government, being in possession of precise and trustworthy
information regarding the frontier of Hawizeh, have no occasion to appeal to more
uncertain authorities, but they think it is not without interest to recaU to the Imperial
Ottoman Government that Dervish Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , whose estimates of Turkish claims were
not usually marked by excessive moderation, admits in Chapter XHI of his book
(printed in Constantinople in 1868), " that it would be hardly right " for the Ottoman
Government to lay claim to the country of Hawizeh, though, in the subsequent chapter,
his Excellency expresses the view that it " might be useful " for Turkey to claim it as