File 2764/1904 Pt 5 'Baghdad Railway: Anglo-Turkish negotiations; concessions proposed in respect of Kowait; negotations with Hakki Pasha in London; Anglo-Turkish agreement.' [‎183r] (378/536)

To the Political Secretary, 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. , London, S.W.
No. M. 11.
Sir, Mohammerah,
meat of Jndh, fcopyTI Yo r^hl 0 ?™
regkmrf^the Sffiatt-el-Aralo. ^ ° f ^ ^ »tnd^ ^
I have, &c.,
^ 1 .^ >- r ^\ Cox, Lieutenant-Colonel,
olitical Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
Fr 0 1n L thfpersffin 0 Offif R 81 ^ 5 6 ^' C f X ’ ^ CJ - E - °- S - L > Mitical Residen
Henry McAfeLP G.CV 0 ? K.CXE asftecG'^TGP ^ 61 Si
ment of India, in the Foreign Department, Simla. 6 ^ l ° 16 ° Veiri
g ir N °' M ' 10 ' Mohammerah,
In continnation of my telegram No. M. 9 of 6 th May fg^LhlvLh,
honour to forward, for the information of the Government of India a copy ,
a further report on the subject of the Turco-Persian boundary hPtln
vicinity of the Shatt-al-Arab by Lieutenant Wilson whom I deputed t<
e-examme the locality on the spot with a view to clearing up if possible
doubtful points on the record. & l ’ ’ i ssu le
2. To what he records I may add that when at Ahwaz a few days ago
whilst consulting the Shaikh regarding the Hawizeh boundary, I took the
opportunity to question him regarding the nature of his ownership of the
land beta een the locally recognized boundary and Failiyeh. He stated
emphatically that there was no difference whatever in the nature of his
tenure there (nor had there been in the case of his father) from that existing
m the case of any- other lands in his jurisdiction, as, for example
Abbadan, a part of which he has recently leased to the Oil Company
that is to say, that the possession of the land is vested in him not as private
owner but as tribal overlord, his hereditary rights as such having been
specifically recognized by farman from the Persian Government
. He altogether denied that in his own time or in that of his father
(>.e., since 1857), any tribute had been paid on account of any of these lands
to the Government of Basrah.
4. The bona fides of the Persian claim to the sovereignty of the above
lands, as already explained, receives constructive corroboration from the
fact that though the Shaikh (and his predecessors), and their tribesmen have
for many years been the private proprietors of large and valuable tracts of
land on the islands and mainland adjacent to the boundary but in Turkish
territory, the difference in the tenure is frankly recognised and the taxes
readily paid to the Turkish authorities. There is no record of cases of such
private ownership being used to build up factitious claims designed to
convert the lands into Persian territory, nor, indeed, is there the slightest
inducement to do so, for as proprietors in Turkish territory the occupants
are, on the whole, better off than their fellows in Persian jurisdiction where
the rig]its of landowners are less well defined, and they are more a prey to
arbitrary treatment than they are in Turkey.
5. T will postpone any further remarks on the question of the frontier
pending the receipt of the further papers promised in Foreign Office
Despatch, No. 1, Political, 13,425/12, of 29th March 1912.
8. 158.—i.