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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [12r] (23/82)
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
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
19
respectively for admission within the limits of
either territory.
To Sir Stratford ^ was i n 1844 that the Emperor Nicholas I
September 13, ,J visited England ; and Her Majesty's Government
184/l - took advantage of the presence of Count Nessel-
rode to communicate fully with his Excellency
on this question.
The Russian Vice-Chancellor, while agreeing
in many respects with Sir Stratford Canning's
suggestions, in some particulars proposed modi
fications. He submitted that it would be prefer
able to leave Persia in possession of Mohammerah
and of the left bank of the Shati-el-Arab, with the
right of free navigation of that river, " which
in reality was the sole outlet for the exports of
Southern Persia." In the existing state of un
certainty he considered that the principle of uti
possidetis should apply, and that that principle
militated strongly in favour of the maintenance
of the frontier of the Shatt-el-Arab. Persia, in
return, was to abandon her claim for indemnity
on account of the pillage of Mohammerah in
1837.
Sir Stratford Canning, while admiring the
simplicity of Count Nesselrode's proposals, added
Sir Stratford that unfortunately " the reason that was alleged
NoTembefl " mi against the original propositions was equally
available for the rejection of the modifications;
for if the consent of Persia was not to be expected
in the one case, the refusal of the Porte might be
equally anticipated in the other." This anticipa
tion of his Excellency was amply justified by the
subsequent attitude of Turkey ; however, with
regard to Mohammerah, he admitted that the
Turkish claim was too uncertain to be made good
against a continued occupation of eighty years
either by Persia herself, or by a tribe, whose
headquarters had been situated within the
Persian territory twice the length of that period.
The principle of uti possidetis might therefore, he
considered, be applied to that district without
injustice, though care should be taken to give it
no extension unwarranted by fact. The Persians,
he added, were not in possession of the left bank
of the Shatt-el-Arab higher than Mohammerah,
nor could they navigate any part of that river
without being liable to the duties levied on
shipping and merchandise by the Ottoman au
thorities.
Sir Stratford Sir Stratford Canning subsequently ascertained
Canning, No. 240, t Nesselrode's views on the Mohammerah
November 2, 1844.
About this item
- 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 View the complete information for this record
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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [12r] (23/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000018> [accessed 14 May 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/18/B380
- Title
- ‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’
- Pages
- 1r:1v, 3r:14v, 16r:18v, 20r:30v, 33r:41v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence