File 1356/1912 Pt 2 'Turco-Persian Frontier:- negotiations at Constantinople. (Mohammerah Boundary)' [‎299v] (607/680)

' 2
the Turko-Frontler, the Persian and Turkish Governments agreed, in a Convention
dated 21st December 1911, to assemble a joint Commission at Constantinople,
composed of delegates from both sides, for the purpose of negotiating an
amicable settlement of disputed points and arriving at an agreement on the whole ^
frontier question. It was stipulated that the Treaty of Erzeroum (1847) should
be the basis of these negotiations and that any particular points upon which the
delegates should be unable to arrive at an agreement within a period of 6
months from the time of the assembly of the Commission, should be referred
for decision to the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague.
You are also, no doubt, aware, that the wording of the Treaty of Erzeroum,
read in conjunction with the explanatory notes attached thereto, purports to
give the whole of the waters of the Shatt-al-Arab to Turkey, only allowing
Persia the town of Mohammerah and its anchorage on the Karun ; and further
that when the Turko-Persian Boundary Commissioners met in the Shatt-al-Arab
in 1850 to endeavour to fix the Frontier and the representatives of the two
countries made unreasonable cross claims, of the nature of which you are gene
rally aware, the two English and Russian Mediating Commissioners expressed
the view that an equitable boundary might be considered to run from the mouth
of the Abu Jidiyeh Canal direct through Kishk-i-Basri to Hawizeh. By the
adoption of this line the strip of riparian ground between Abu Jidiyeh Canal and
Diaiji would fall to Turkey.
If therefore the question of the Arabistan boundary should be carried to the
Hague Court, it is considered by legal experts very doubtful whether Persia
would be awarded nearly as good a frontier as that which now seems to be
locally observed, and it consequently seems of the highest importance to Persia
and more particularly to Your Excellency, that all reference to the Hague should
be avoided by the conclusion of an amicable compromise in regard to this part
of the Frontier.
The above considerations have prompted His Majesty’s Government to do
their utmost, in the interests of yourself and of the Persian Government to get
Turkey to agree, without going to the Hague, to a settlement which as far as
possible confirms the frontier as locally observed, and which, as explained above,
will be much more favourable to yourself and to Persia than the line recom
mended by the Mediating Commissioners in 1850.
The boundary line which we have put forward runs as follows
Coming from that branch of the Duwairij called the Khorel-Muhaisin, it
passes southwards across the Khor-el-Azem until it reaches the main channel of
the marsh just west of the village of Shuaib. Thence it continues in a southerly
direction down the same channel through the marsh until it arrives due west of
Kishk-i-Basri. From that point it breaks back and passes in a straight line to
Kishk-i-Basri itself and from thence again it turns and proceeds due south until
it reaches the vicinity of Diaiji near the Shatt-al-Arab. Here it becomes the
boundary at present locally observed, and entering the Khaiyin Canal, (the
channel running from the Customs post at Diaiji between the islands of Kharnu-
biyah, Bowarin, Aqawat and the mainland, as far as the junction of Nahr
Nazaileh with the Shatt-al-Arab and Nahr Abul Arabid), it follows the middle
line of the Khor Khaiyin until it reaches the point where the Nahr Khaiyin and
the Nahr Nazaileh meet the main channel of the Shatt-al-Arab.
As regards the boundary from thence to the sea we have represented that
the boundary as locally observed seems to be the centre of the fairway steamer-
channel, but as I have explained to you above, in all probability if this question
is referred to the Hague, Persia would not be able, in view of the terms of the
Treaty of Erzeroum, to make good a claim to the centre channel line ; they are,
therefore, being advised, on condition of the Turkish Government accepting the
frontier as above described from Duwairij to the junction of the Nazaileh Khaiyin
and Shatt-al-Arab, to recognise Turkey’s right to the whole waterway, subject to
certain conditions.