'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' [‎52r] (108/143)

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APPENDIX I.
Turkish Wazirial Letter explanatory of the Conventiwi with Persia of
December 20th, 1875. 1 — Constantinople, 4th January 1876.
(Copied from Hertslet’s “ Persian Treaties,” 1891.)
Translation.
Explanations of the foregoing Convention, made under date of the 8th
Zi’l Hijja the Sacred, (A. H.) 1292 (4th January 1876), on the part of the Sub
lime Porte, in a Wazirial Letter notified to all the Judges of the Ottoman
Dominions, a copy thereof being officially communicated to the exalted Per
sian Legation residing in Constantinople.
Although 12 out of the 14 Articles contained in the said Collation
(muqabila-nameh)" are of a kind clear and manifest, still, for the purpose that,
in the interpretation of Articles I and VII, no manner of discrepancy shall
remain, it is undertaken, as follows, to give Certain explanations to this effect:
1 rial and Punishment for Personal Injuries, Crimes, and Misdemeanours.
Although, in accordance with Article I, “ the subjects of the exalted Per
sian Government who are in the Ottoman Dominions, in every matter relating
to personal injuries, crimes, and misdemeanours, are individually subject to
the Regulations and Laws of the Ottoman Empire, and directly to the police
and tribunals of the said Empire; and in order to the sentencing of indivi
duals whose crime, offence or misdemeanour has been proved, the judicial sen
tence issued shall be communicated to the Persian Officials in a certified copy
thereof and in the preliminary investigations that take place in respect of
them until the culpability or innocence of them shall become apparent, the pre
sence in person, or by a representative, of the Persian Agents and Vice-
Agents will necessarily be permissible : still, as the effect of this Article covers
such kinds of acts as may have occurred between subjects of the exalted
Government (of Turkey) and subjects of the exalted Persian Government, it
will become needful in this case, that, for one individual Persian w T ronged or
hodily injured, an Ottoman adverse party should exist; and thence a right and
capacity ensues for the Persian Officials to inquire into the punitory result de
creed against an Ottoman subject. Any information of this kind that may
be asked for by them must be given.
Settlement of Suits and Disputes. Detention of Persians by Ottoman Police.
Again, since, according to the details set forth in Article VII “ every kind
of suit or contestation,” “ whether relating to rights,” “ offences, crimes, or per
sonal injuries ” that may arise between two Persian subjects must be settled
by means of the Persian Agents and Vice-Agents, the decision and determin
ation of all such suits and their other mutual dealings must be relegated to the
Agents and Vice-Agents; for this same reason it will be necessary in the case
where the delinquents are taken and detained by the local police at the very
time of their criminal act, whenever they may be proved to be really Persian
subjects, they shall be immediately delivered to the Agents and Vice-Agents.
And this act of detention shall only then be put in practice when the said act
takes place openly. Otherwise, whenever they occur in the place of abode of
one individual Persian, such conduct and action wull naturally be observed as,
according to what is set forth in Article XIV, shall be consistent with the
system which, in like cases, is practised in respect of other foreign subjects.
(No signatures indicated.) * *
1 See Aitchison’a “ Treaties,Appendix 20.
* Presumably a clerical error for muqawila nameh.