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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎5r] (9/82)

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The record is made up of 1 file (41 folios, 5 maps). It was created in 3 Apr 1912. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

Transcription

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5
It will be seen from the foregoing summary that the
attitude finally assumed by His Majesty's Government
did not differ very materially from the views advanced
by Lieutenant Wilson and the British resident in the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
Those officers urged, in effect, that since, so far as
Turkey was concerned, His Majesty's Government
did not yet seem irrevocably committed to father
the line of 1850, His Majesty's Government should
disregard it.
His Majesty's Government, while holding that it
would be prudent to retain the 1850 line as the basis
of discussion, were prepared, if the question were
raised, to negotiate for, to press, and, in certain
contingencies, to insist upon, the recognition of the
boundary as locally observed.*
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , There was some further correspondence in
June.), 1911. the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. on the subject: this
is referred to in a subsequent part of this paper.
Sir G. Barclay
(Tehran),
No. 148,
Telegraphic,
May 1, 1911.
The question which now arises is that of the
procedure to he adopted by His Majesty s
Government, in view of the proposal to submit
the Turco-Persian frontier dispute to The Hague
Tribunal. This question, which is somewhat
more complicated owing to recent Turkish
attempts to control lighting and buoyage at the
entrance to the Shatt-el-Arab, will be dealt with
in the final portion of this memorandum.
In order, however, that the conclusions
eventually adopted may be arrived at with a full
knowledge of the facts, a historical summary of
the earlier correspondence—embracing the views
of Sir H. Layard, Sir IT. Rawlinson, Sir Justin
Sheil, Sir Fenwick Williams, Sir Stratford Can
ning, and other authorities, on Mohammerah,
and embodying the important negotiations on
the subject from 1843-52—has been prepared,
and forms Part II of this memorandum.
The diplomatic correspondence of those years
is of cardinal importance, since Turkey has only
recently laid special stress upon it in the nego
tiations which led up to the protocol signed
at Tehran on the 21st December, 1911 (see
Appendix (B), p. 51).
♦ It must not be overlooked that Russia, by virtue of her
past mediation, is concerned in this question; and His
Majesty's Government would seem almost bound not to
abandon formally the joint line of the mediating commis
sioners of 1850, without previous consultation with the
Russian Government.
[2410 c—10] C

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Content

The memorandum concerns the border between Mohammerah [Khorramshahr] and Turkey, and was prepared by Alwyn Parker of the Foreign Office. There are a number of labels at the top of the first page: ‘Persia’, ‘Confidential’ and ‘Section 10’. The memorandum sections are as follows:

  • Part I. A preface (folios 1-5), introducing the points at issue, with two maps, the first being a sketch map of the Mohammerah district, with the proposed Turkish, Persian and mediating commissioner’s lines indicated (folio 2), and a map compiled from plane table surveys by Lieutenant Arnold Talbot Wilson in 1909, with the frontier as defined by the mediating commissioners in 1850 (folio 4);
  • Part II. An historical summary (folios 6-19) of British Government correspondence relating to the border dispute, with the chief focus being on correspondence exchanged during the period 1843-52, around the time of the Treaty of Erzeroum (c.1848). This part contains two copies of a map, a facsimile of a diagram of the disputed area, the original of which was enclosed by Colonel Williams in his despatch of 4 February 1850, indicating Turkish and Persian claims and the mediating commissioner’s proposal (folios 15, 19);
  • Part III. Conclusion (folios 20-28), with a further map (folio 23), an exact copy of that found on folio 4.

The appendices that follow are:

  • A: British assurances given to the Shaikh of Mohammerah, 1899 and 1902-10;
  • B. Protocol of December 1911 (in French) for the proposal settlement of the Turco-Persian frontier question;
  • C. An extract from Sir Austen Henry Layard’s Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia , published in 1887. The extract is from volume 2, pp 431-439;
  • D. Rough notes made by General William Monteith when in Persia, on the frontier of Turkey and Persia, as communicated to the Foreign Office in 1843;
  • E. Observations by Sir Henry Rawlinson on a Persian memorandum relative to the situation of the cities of Mohammerah and Fellahiah [Fallāḥīyah], 1844;
  • F. Text of the Treaty of Erzeroum, 31 May 1847, in English and French translation;
  • G. Copy of a despatch from Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador to Istanbul, to Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary, dated 30 May 1850;
  • H. Copy of a despatch from Lord Palmerston to Lord Broomfield, dated 12 July 1850.
Extent and format
1 file (41 folios, 5 maps)
Arrangement

The memorandum is arranged into three parts, labelled I, II and III, which are followed by eight lettered appendices, A-H. Historic correspondence referred to in the memorandum is referenced in the inside page margin.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio and terminates at the last folio; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

Pagination: The booklet contains an original typed pagination sequence.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎5r] (9/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x00000a> [accessed 23 April 2024]

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