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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎22r] (43/82)

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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. .

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35
but he added that the note, being of an explana
tory character, could not be supposed to change
the very nature of the treaty, as contended by
Turkey. The primary object of the explanations
Mr. Wellesley given was, according to Lord Cowley's own
Cowley), 1 N S o L 48 d account, to reassure the Porte on two points :
February 3, 1847. jt wished to have the anchorage ground of
Mohammerah more accurately defined, and it
Avas apprehensive that, under the wording of
article 2 of the treaty, it risked losing a large
portion of territory if it were to be inferred that
territory was to be given over to Persia merely
because it w r as occupied by tribes calling them
selves Persian.)
First and Second Now w r hen the Delimitation Commission did
Mohammerah! meet at Mohammerah in 1850, both the Persian
i85o ary 28 ^ 29 ' an ^ ^ ie ^rkish Delegates put forward extravagant
Enclosures 2 and 3 claims; the latter based his claims on the
CanuL^No^iO " Explanatory Note," while the former declined
March 30, 1850. to be bound by anything but the Treaty, con
tending that the Persian Envoy at Constantinople
had acted without authority in adhering to the
"Explanatory Note": the Mediating Commis
sioners recommended a line w r hich Persia accepted
conditionally, and Turkey rejected altogether.
The line proposed by the Mediating Com
missioners is important, inasmuch as it represents,
except in so far as proof may be adduced to the
contrary, what w r as the conclusion of the
Mediating Commissioners on the important
question of where, in the year 1850, Persian
territory ended and Turkish territory began. In
other words, it was the impartial interpretation,
and practical application of the terms of the Treaty
of Erzeroum,and of the "Explanatory Note" by
the Mediating Commissioners on the spot.
"Whatever arguments may be adduced in favour
of the abandonment by His Majesty's Govern
ment of the line proposed by their own Com
missioner in 1850, and in favour of their support
of a line less advantageous to Turkey, there seems
little reason to expect that the Uague Tribunal,
whose award must expressly be based on the
Treaty of Erzeroum, will readily set aside such
leading evidence.
His Majesty's Government have cordially
supported the proposal for submitting the
Turco-Persian frontier dispute to the Hague
Tribunal; and since Turkey, in negotiating last
year for a reference to the Hague, laid special
emphasis upon the diplomatic correspondence

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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.’ [‎22r] (43/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x00002c> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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