Coll 30/79 'Persian claim to 10 mile limit for Persian territorial waters.' [‎205r] (409/461)

mmm
3 [I
J 45
can form the base line for territorial waters. According to the reply which has just
been drawn up by the Departments concerned to the League of Nations
questionnaire about territorial waters, “the base line is the line of mean low water
spring tides.” I take this to mean that the land above this line must all be above
water at low spring tides, and, if so, the areas in question would not seem to fall
within the definition. It is to be noted, further, that the drying patches in these
areas Ho not fall within the definition of islands in the same memorandum, because
they are not “ in normal circumstances permanently above high water,” and could
not, therefore, support, as islands, a base line. I should imagine that what happened
was that when the commission arrived on the spot the whole of these areas were
under water, and that they accordingly regarded the coast as being what is marked
on the Admiralty chart by the thick green and red shading, the mouth of the river
as lying at tlmt point, and everything beyond as being the sea. This is the only
view which is, in my opinion, reconcilable with what they in fact did, and it is con
firmed by the fact that on their map the Persian coast obviously corresponds to the
green shading, and Maraket Abadan does not appear at all: its site is covered bv
the words “ Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .”
If the Admiralty on reconsideration were to think this a view which we could
uphold, our difficulties would largely vanish. If the base line of Persian territorial
waters is taken from the thick green shading, the whole of the Rooka Channel would
lie in the open sea. I he Western Channel might be partly in Persian territorial
waters until it entered Iraq national waters, but there would, of course, be the right
of innocent passage, and it would seem more likely that the limit between Iraq and
Persian territorial waters would be regarded as running down the middle of it. A
possible modification of this view might be that the base line for Persian territorial
waters is to run not from the thick green shading, but from a line somewhere in the
vicinity of “North Mast ” (since the area north-west of that may have stronger
claims to count as land), but even in that case nearly the whole of the Rooka Channel
would still be in the open sea and the rest in Persian territorial, not national, waters.
I think that the above represents the most defensible line for us to take, and I
suggest that the Admiralty should be asked to reconsider the question in the light
of the above observations.
December 20, 1928.
H W. M.
[E 962/58/34]
Enclosure 4 in No. 135.
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.
(Confidential.)
r Downing Street, Febmai'y'21, \$ % 2§.
WITH reference to Foreign Office letter of the 14th February, regarding the
draft Bill on the subject of Persian territorial waters, I am directed by
Mr. Secretary Amery to transmit herewith, to. be laid before Secretary Sir Austen
Chamberlain, a copy of a despatch wffiich has been received from the High Commis
sioner for Iraq in regard to the effect of that Bill upon the Rooka Channel through
the Shatt-el-Arab bar, and in regard to the means by which the Iraq Government
can secure the right to control navigation passing through that channel.
2. Mr. Amery would be glad to be furnished as soon as possible with any
observations that Sir Austen Chamberlain may have to offer in regard to the points
raised in Sir H. Dobbs’s despatch.
3. A copy of a letter which Mr. Amery has caused to be addressed to the
Admiralty is enclosed herewith, for Sir Austen Chamberlain's information, and
copies of this letter are being forwarded to the 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. , Air Ministry and Board
of Trade.
I am, &c.
T. T. K. LLOYD.
[ 20167 ]
N