Coll 17/15(1) 'Perso-Iraq Relations: Persia-Iraq frontier; Persia's claim in the Shatt-el-Arab' [‎167v] (345/961)

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by representatives of Turkey, Persia, Great Britain and Russia, and in a m
referred to therein. This protocol, which was an instrument entiref
consequential on the difficulties which had arisen in connection with tJ
execution of the validly ratified treaty of Erzerum, and was therefore in th
nature of a corollary to that instrument, provided for the delimitation of
the frontier on the ground by a commission of the four Powers, and stated in
Article 5 :—
“ Des qu’une partie de la frontiere aura ete delimitee, cette partie
sera consideree comme fixee definitivement et ne sera susceptible ni d’examen
ulterieur ni de revision.”
19. The commission assembled at Mohammerah in January 1914 and
completed its work by October 1914. It settled the line of the frontier in detail
throughout its whole length, with the exception of a section opposite Kotour
(which does not concern the present Perso-Iraqi frontier), and recorded its work
in 87 protocols, and a ct Tableau descriptif ” of the boundary pillars which they
erected. This description was supported by a line drawn upon ten sets of
photographic reproductions of the relevant sheets of the “ Identic Map ” of 1869
and upon ten sets of 25 sheets of a “ carte supplementaire,” prepared to illustrate
the line in sections which were not shown in sufficient detail on the “Identic
Map.” Each sheet of each set of these maps was signed by the four commis
sioners. The 1914 delimitation was in general conformity with the treaty of
Erzerum, in so far as the latter can be said to have laid down a definite frontier
at all.
20. As a result of the Great War of 1914—18 the Mesopotamian provinces
of Turkey became detached from the Turkish Empire and were formed into the
independent kingdom of Iraq, in which, however, mandatory authority was
eX 5 r r^ SeC ^ His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom until the
3rd October, 1932, when, with the admission of Iraq to membership of the League
of Nations, the mandatory regime came to an end. Iraq thus became fully
independent, but became an ally of the United Kingdom in virtue of a Treaty
of Alliance signed on the 30th June, 1930.
"H- the 9th August, 1919, on the occasion of the signature of the abortive
Anglo-Persian Agreement, Sir Percy Cox, His Majesty’s Minister at Tehran,
addressed the following letter to the Persian Prime Minister :—
T • : • A s further evidence of the goodwill by which the Cabinet of
.London is inspired, I am now authorised to inform your Highness that, h
the event of the agreement regarding projects of reform which your Govern
ment contemplate introducing in Persia being concluded, His Britannic
a JU^y s Government will be prepared in due course to co-operate with the
ei sian Government with a view to the realisation of the following
desiderata :—
#
3 The rectification of the frontier of Persia at the points where it is
agreed upon by the parties to be justifiable.
^j 16 m anner, time and means to be chosen for pursuing these
aims shall be discussed as soon as practicable, by the two Governments.”
x> ^ Ji 1 P ursuanc e °i this intention Eiruz Mirza (Nosret-ed-Dowleh), t
Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, came to London and explained t]
Jf 11 i m T Q a 5?P lratlons of Persia to Lord Curzon in great detail in the autun
rp i ' in cluded the acquisition of considerable areas in Sista
urmsan, lans-Caucasia and Turkish Kurdistan and opposite Zofo
(i.e., Khamqm) and Firuz Mirza expressed the hope that His Majesty
Government would support these claims at the forthcoming conference to decu
e ci ms ° e tieaty of peace with Turkey. He was informed that most (
em ay ou bide the scope of the conference, and were in any case quil
chimerical, but Lord Curzon wrote him on the 19th December, 1919 1 :—
I am, however, as I had the honour of telling your Highness on
previous occasions, prepared to do what may be possible, after full examina-
1011 of the geographical and ethnographical features of the case, to gi ve