File 1356/1912 Pt 1 'Turco-Persian Frontier:- negotiations at Constantinople.' [‎18v] (45/885)

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f T • Iltpnant Diebv Beste’s notes that his observations
3. It will be seen fro ^ ^ ^ Scott) Survey of India, retired, which
confirm those recently y • Lon(y> go ' 2 ^" q w hich is about 6 miles
place Nasiri in Lat. 31 o «27" Lono - . 48° 40' 47''') assigned to it by
the^atesfsurvey litZ La'ps, thus altering considerably its position relative to
Hawizeh.
The result of the triangulation by planetable, and of the astronomical
ine resuu r .P uracv 0 f t he Commissioners determiation
observations, was ' This be i ng t he case, there seems no doubt that the
ad Jus^ment'made inThe ^lane^able sketch enclosed in your letter No. M-,8, dated
May 6th, was necessary, the difficulties of tnangulat.on between Snwaiyib
and Kishk-i-Basri being in the opinion of the Surveyor sufficient to_ account
Z the discrepancy in latitudinal distance. 1 had hoped to oe able to vistt Jefa.r
to confirm its position, but was not able to do so owing to lack of water and of
facilities for transporting it there.
4. To turn to the question of the frontier north-west of Hawizeh with a
view to fixing accurately the position of Bisaitin, on the Karkheh, as well as
Hawizeh by triangulation, I found it best to proceed thither direct from Nasiri,
extending in a north-westerly direction the triangulation which had been carried
out in 1910 as far as Kut Hashim under my supervision. Bisaitin is some 18
miles north-north-west of Hawizeh and is the last inhabited place in this
direction until Pusht-i-Kuh is reached, the low hills north of the Karkheh being
uninhabited except for occasional incursions of nomads such as the Khasrij,
on their way to commit depredations in the neighbourhood of Dizful, or of the
Bani Lam when seeking in Persian territory a safe refuge from the importunities
of the Turkish tax-gatherer. Bisaitin is therefore popularly spoken of as the
limit of the Hawizeh district to the north west.
5. When questioning the Shaikhs of the Bani Turuf, who exclusively in
habit this corner of the district, regarding the Turko-Persian frontier in their
neighbourhood, I found a disposition among them to distinguish between the
boundary of Persia and their own tribal limits, though they themselves are the
sole Wardens of the Marches in this direction. The frontier of Persia, they
said, was the main stream of the Dawairij River from the point where it left
Pusht-i-Kuh, past the Turkish frontier fort on the ’Amarah-Dizful track (on
the west bank of the stream), and past a locality called Khaiyit-us*Sultan,
and then along the old main channel (now dry) called “ Shatt-al-Ama ” and
“ Ghor Muhaisin ” on the map of the Commissioners. Thence to the Azaim
or ’Azam, a small sheet of open water in the middle of the marsh some distance
west of Shwaiyib down the Suwaib stream until the boundary line turned off,
at some indefinite point, to Kishk-i-Basri.
6. I then pressed the Shaikhs to give me details of the frontier as actually
observed and occupied by their tribesmen : this they willingly consented to do,
and arranged for me to visit it by boat ; it turned out to be the dry bed of a
stream, some 8 miles north-west of Bisaitin marked Ghor-ed-Douvil (Hor-at-
Tawil ?) on the Commissioners’ map ; this stream they said had formerly carried
the bulk of the waters of the Dawairij, but had now been dry for many years ;
it was known locally as the Dawairij Maiyit (the dead Dawairij) or as Umm
Chir. Herds of buffaloes and tracks worn by flocks over the barren plain
showed that up to this point they were undoubtedly in actual occupation of the
land, t.ie actual owners of the buffaloes being Saiyids of the Bani Turuf.
When asked why they did not occupy the land between Umm Chir and the fron
tier which they claimed for Persia, some 7 miles distant, they replied that the
an s in question were barren and liable to raids by Turkish and Persian nomads,
thatthey were waterless the marsh water being quite undrinkable even by
cattle and that they feared that were they to go further westwards trouble would
result. I was in fact, unable to induce them to take me to the Turko-Pers ; an
boundary at Ghor Muhaism which they said was beyond their limits and to
visit which might involve them in all sorts of calamities They insisted so
strongly on this as to raise some doubt in my mind as to whether the real