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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎24r] (47/82)

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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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Colonel Williams
to Colonel Sheil,
September 17,
1850.
Colonel Sheil
(Tehran), No. 35,
March 25, 1850.
Colonel Sheil to
Colonel Williams,
June 27, 1850.
Before Colonel Williams left Constantinople
in 1849 to delimit the frontier, he bad prepared
a map embracing the supposed line of the whole
frontier from the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. to Mount Ararat
according to the treaty, and, he wrote, that
portion of the line in the vicinity of Mobam-
merab I presume to be a near approximation
to truth." The line in this map of 1849 leaves
the Shatt-el-Arab at a point 5J miles or so
above the HafPar Channel (Mobammerah) : that
actually proposed by the Mediating Com
missioners in 1850 left the Sbatt-el-Arab at
a point about 2J miles above the HafFar
Channel,
It is not quite clear why Colonel Williams had
selected 5^ miles above the Haffar Channel as
the point whence to start his line in the map be
bad prepared in 1849 ; but the reason why the
Mediating Commissioners eventually, in 3 850,
selected a place 2|- instead of 5^ miles above the
Haffar Channel was that they apprehended danger
to navigation for Bussorah if a certain fort, built
by the Sheikh of Mohammerah, and the land in
its immediate neighbourhood, were left to Persia.
This decision gave rise to a protest from Persia,
who claimed that the frontier ought at least to
have started from a place four or six miles further
up the river, on the ground that it was in actual
possession of a tribe dependent on Persia. The
Persian Government eventually accepted, how
ever, the line proposed by the Mediating Com
missioners, on condition that the Persian
tribesmen outside the Mediating Commissioners'
line for a distance of six miles or so should
be transferred to Persia; but as this condition
was considered impossible of execution, it
was sought to give Persia compensation in
another direction : this compensation was after
wards awarded to her by the line proposed
by the Mediating Commissioners at Zohab,
and although the line at Zobab was never
accepted by Turkey any more than the Mediating
Commissioners' line at Mohammerah, Persia
does, in point of fact, still hold the land near
Zohab allotted to her by the Mediating Commis
sioners, and apparently a good deal more
besides.
It appears that, if Turkey should now claim
the frontier line proposed by the Mediating Com
missioners at Mohammerab on the ground that
[2440 c-10] L

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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.’ [‎24r] (47/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000030> [accessed 25 April 2024]

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