'A Précis of the Relations of the British Government with the Tribes and Shaikhs of 'Arabistan By Lieutenant A T Wilson, Acting Consul for Arabistan' [‎32v] (69/143)

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the troops or employes in the territories in dispute or in respect to the condi
tion of the inhabitants. 1
When this understanding was reached in November 1851, it was mutually
agreed that the Commissioners should resume their work at the north point
of Province of Zuhab, and make the necessary surveys and investigations
from that point as far as Hawizeh.
In its operation this understanding merely had the effect of transferring
to Zuhab the scenes which had been enacted at Mohammerah and of raising
there difficulties attended with similar incidents and intrigues on the part
of the Ottoman Commissioner.
Colonel Williams and his colleague after laborious surveys of this pro
vince prepared a map indicating the line which, in their opinion, the frontier
should follow. This was communicated to the Mussalman Commissioners
together with a memorandum setting forth the logical considerations upon
which their decisions were based.
Early in 1852, the Ottoman Commissioner declined to proceed further
until the Persian Government had re-established the status quo as under
stood by the Porte, at Mohammerah and Zuhab. The three other Commis
sioners therefore determined, as the only alternative to an indeHnite sus
pension of their labours, to survey the country comprising the line of frontier
between Mandali and Hawizeh.
The only issue from the deadlock which now supervened consisted, in the
opinion of the two mediating Ambassadors at Constantinople, in substi
tuting arbitration for mediation as a means of settlement, but this was
peremptorily and persistently rejected by the Porte.
The only resource that then remained for adoption was to restrict the
labours of the Commission to the construction of a map, comprising a zone
of country from 20 to 50 miles broad, within whose limits the common frontier
would have to be subsequently traced. This course was by mutual consent
adopted.
In 1852, Colonel Williams reported to His Majesty’s Government the
conclusion of the survey of the Turko-Persian frontier from the Persian
Gulf to Mount Ararat, but it was not until 1865 that the maps were com
pleted ! On examination, moreover, the Russian and English maps proved
so inaccurate that the respective Ambassadors at Constantinople refused to
sign them. The work of revision lasted till 1869. Colonel Williams’ notes
and memoranda upon every part of the frontier were lost in their passage up
river to Woolwich.
It is important to emphasize the effect of this loss. In a despatch of
1850, Lord Palmerston had laid down that territorial restitution shDuld be
confined to Mohammerah, Zuhab and Sulaimaniyeh, in accordance with the
Treaty of 1847, but that otherwise the status quo should be maintained- It
is now, however, impossible to determine what, in the opinion of the mediat
ing Commissioners, constituted the status quo of 1843. The only parts of
the frontier actually delimited were Mohammerah to Hawizeh and the
province of Zuhab.
When in 1869 the identic map of the frontier was ready for communica
tion to the Turkish and Persian Governments, copies of it were presented to
each party with an expression of the expectation of the mediating Powers
that the line of boundary was to be found within the limits traced on the
map, and that the Ottoman and Persian Governments would themselves mark
out that line but that, in the event of any difficulty arising between
them in regard to any particular locality, the points in dispute should be
referred to Great Britain and Russia. 2
From 1869 to 1873 the difficulties arising from frontier incidents gained
rather than diminished in intensity, a new element of discord having been
1 From the point of view of the Ottoman Government, who have never accepted the line of the mediatinir
Commissioners, the frontier in force at present is probably based upon this agreement. mediating
line P >Wt ^ er, p >e i ( f n i he u hy - V is , Government that this de claration did not cancel the lounlarv
line from the Pers.an Gulf to Hawizeh deWd in 18.50 by the mediating Commissioners which it
■uch evidence as exists was upheld by the latter Commission which met in 1876. ^