'File No. II/12 Foreign Dept Memoranda of Information re: affairs in Persia and Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf. Jan '09 --' [‎32r] (63/178)

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prepared to recognise any other frontier than
that laid down by the mediating Commis
sioners in 1850, and that, moreover, the
Ottoman Minister for Foreign Ailairs had, in
November 1893, informed His Majesty s
Ambassador to the effect that “ the Turkish
Government laid no claim whatever to
Mohammerah”. Any advance of Ottoman
troops to the south, more especially in the
neighbourhood of Mohammerah, likely to
cause a disturbance of the status quo at
Mohammerah, would therefore affect British
interests, and might not improbably lead to
the active intervention of His Majesty s
Government, who had given the ^ Sheikh
certain assurances in regard to his territory.
The Constitutionalists continued to exert
very strong pressure on the Sheikh to espouse
the popular cause, and the difficulty of his
position was aggravated by the fact that it was
impossible for him to get any private te e-
gram to the Shah or Prime Minister past the
Nationalist censorships at Ispahan.
On the 26th March, Major Cox, who had
arrived at Mohammerah, reported that the
Sheikh had informed him that the situation
at Mohammerah had been rendered much
more critical by the news of the recent suc
cesses of the Nationalists at Bunder Abbas
and Bushire, and he anticipated that their
unruly levies would now turn their attention
to his outlying ports of Dilam, Hindean,
&c., and that he could not hold out much
longer, unless he could be assured that
the British Government would give him
effective support in resisting the Nationalists
and would protect him against the subsequent
consequences of his so doing; he added that he
must take some course which would save his
face with both parties. Major Cox replied
that he had no power to give any such
guarantee.
The Sheikh went on to explain that, if the
customs receipts continued to be forwarded to
Tehran, Nationalist resentment would be
unrestrainable; that he, as head of tie
Mohammerah customs, w r ould be made ^spon
sible for the receipts, and that, if the British
Government ■were unable to intervene, or to
give him definite advice, he vvould have to
ask the Belgian Director to retain the receipts
in the custom-house premises under adequate
guardship until matters became quieter.
The following is the extent of assurances
asked for by the Sheikh :—
Firstly, to be assured that the British
Government will not allow any ^ Persian
rdgime, whether absolute or constitutional, to
disturb the status quo in regard to himselt or
his successors;
V,