Coll 30/86(3) 'PERSIA. Relations with Iraq: Shatt-el-Arab. Establishment of an International Conservancy Board.' [145r] (296/674)
The record is made up of 1 file, in 2 parts (329 folios). It was created in 14 Apr 1937-5 Mar 1946. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: 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. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
No. 356.
(E 3699/127/34)
E j • 7 ^
4413 |
i938- |
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.l.
23rd June, 1938.
Sir,
^0 3 4 In Your Excellency' s despatch No. 169 of the
23rd April you enclosed a memorandum Toy Mr. McDougall,
the Legal Adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, upon which you asked for my ohservations.
2. With regard to the objective at which the Iraqi
Government should aim in negotiating a Conservancy or
Navigation Convention, His Majesty’s Government agree
entirely with the opinion expressed by Mr. McDougall.
There can be no doubt that the Iraqi Government ought not
to agree to a Convention setting up a single executive
Board with wide powers, unless that Convention is
tripartite. The reasons given by Mr. McDougall and by
you against such a course seem conclusive. If therefore
a tripartite Convention or executive Board is e x hypoth e si
impossible, it seems to His Majesty’s Government imperative
that the Iraqi Government, whatever the difficulties of
securing agreement on such lines may appear at the outset
to be, should aim at a Convention providing for each side
to administer its own waters according to certain common
rules, preferably with a joint ? or tripartite, advisory
commission with British representation. I may add in this
connexion that the views of the Admiralty experts on the
question whether divided control of the navigation of the
river would be dangerous to navigation, for which you ask
in paragraph 9 of your despatch, were embodied in
Mr. Eden’s telegram No..11 of the 28th January to
His Excellency
Sir Maurice Peterson, K.C.M.G.,
etc., etc., etc.,
Bagdad.
Sir/
About this item
- Content
The file concerns the possibility of establishing an international Conservancy Board for the Shatt-el-Arab (also referred to as the Shatt-al-Arab) between the governments of Iraq, Iran (also referred to as Persia), and the United Kingdom.
The board was intended to ensure the efficient maintenance and navigation of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. The United Kingdom was involved because of the close interests of British shipping in the conservancy of the Shatt-al-Arab.
The papers cover: Perso-Iraqi frontier negotiations; drafts, signing (July 1937), and ratification (June 1938) of the Perso-Iraqi Frontier Treaty; Turkish approval of the frontier negotiations; the signing of the four power non-aggression pact between Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan (the Saad-Abad [Saadabad] Pact), 1937; Abadan anchorage; Foreign Office memoranda and minutes of meetings concerning a convention for the conservancy of the Shatt-al-Arab; the question of British participation in the convention; lighting and buoying; the involvement of Sir John Ward [serving with the Iraqi Government] in the discussions; the opposition of the Iranian Government to British involvement; the involvement of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC); the Port of Basra (including Foreign Office memorandum, folios 77-83); the Rooka Channel; and renewed discussion of the issue in 1945, including the importance of the Shatt-al-Arab for tanker traffic to supply Britain's war needs in the Far East.
The main correspondents are the Foreign Office, the British Ambassador to Iraq, and HM Minister, Tehran.
The French language content of the file consists of approximately twenty folios of diplomatic correspondence and treaties.
There are no papers in the file dated 1941-44.
The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 file, in 2 parts (329 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: this file consists of two physical parts. The foliation sequence commences at the first folio of part one (ff 1-169) and terminates at the last folio of part two (ff 170-329); these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel; these numbers are printed, but are not circled. A previous foliation sequence, which is circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out. The front and back conservation covers (parts one and two), have not been foliated.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Coll 30/86(3) 'PERSIA. Relations with Iraq: Shatt-el-Arab. Establishment of an International Conservancy Board.' [145r] (296/674), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3804, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100047087709.0x000061> [accessed 24 April 2024]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/3804
- Title
- Coll 30/86(3) 'PERSIA. Relations with Iraq: Shatt-el-Arab. Establishment of an International Conservancy Board.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:40v, 51r:106v, 107v:130v, 131v:134v, 137r:169v, back-i, front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 170r:174v, 175v:224v, 225v:226v, 230r:275v, 284r:284v, 287v:302v, 306r:306v, 307v:323v, 328r:329v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence