Coll 29/73 'Ahwaz: grant of compensation to the Shaikh of Mohammerah on account of money he advanced towards the building of a consulate at Ahwaz' [‎44v] (90/331)

the property and evicting them from it or otherwise
disturbing their possession. In these circumstances
the Foreign Office propose to instruct the Minister to
explain to the Sheikh that it is for this reason alone
that they wish to obtain from him an undertaking with
regard to his claim to the site and that what they
require is merely a limited undertaking that in the
event of H.M.G. or the Government of India purchasing
the site he will not raise as against them a claim for
damages or for the ownership of the property. This
would not , however, preclude the Sheikh from suing the
vendor for damages and the Sheikh’s undertaking to H.M.G.
and the Government of India would be kept confidential.
The Government of India are not really directly
interested in this aspect of the question, since Ahwaz
is now a purely Foreign Office post,and they will not
be called upon to share the cost of building the new
Consulate. The Foreign Office draft despatch seems on
the whole satisfactory from our point of view, and it is
submitted that we may concur in it without consulting the
Government of India. It might indeed be argued that the
Foreign Office draft errs on the side of insisting too
rigidly on the Sheikh waiving any possible claim against
H.M.G. in respect of the site, in view of the unlikelihood
that he will ever be in a position under Persian law to
raise any such claim. On the other hand we aie hardly
in a position to suggest this to the Foreign Office and
probably could not do so without consulting the Government
of India. We might, however, make the minor suggestion
mentioned in the draft letter to the Foreign Office in
view of the admitted moral obligation resting on H.M.G.
to compensate the Sheikh.
The Foreign Office are anxious if possible to
dispose of this question before the end of March during j
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