" ملف رقم ١٣٥٦ لسنة ١٩١٢ الجزء ٢ "الحدود التركية-الفارسية:- مفاوضات في القسطنطينية. (حدود المحمرة)" [و‎‎٢‎٦‎٦] (٦٨٠/٥٤٠)

CONFIDENTIAL.
1
Sw G. Lowther to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received November 15, 5*5 p.m.)
Constantinople, November 15, 1912.
(No. 631.) R. (November 15, 1 p.m.)
TURCO-PERSIAN frontier. Your telegram No. 1009
I saw Minister for Foreign Affairs on the 8th instant and earnestly begged him to
settle this question in a conciliatory spirit and to establish once and for all a stable
frontier. His Excellency replied that he was prepared to do his best to that end, and j
admitted that Turkish Government had been in fault since 1905. He said, however, {
that it would be very difficult to abandon so much territory without some semblance of
concessions from other side, adding that they were now being asked to give up the
whole so-called “ contested zone.” In reply 1 pointed out that this was not the case,
only territory to be ceded being that laid down by treaty of 1847. I said that I feared
that no progress would be made as long as Adil Bey remained president of the joint
commission. His Excellency promised to study matter and proposed within a week or
so to attend commission himself and see what could be done. To a further observation
of mine respecting the inconvenience and delay of a reference to The Hague
tribunal his Excellency repeated that this difficulty could be overcome by careful
drafting.
A reply similar to above was given by Minister for Foreign Affairs to my Russian
colleague, but it will obviously be difficult under present critical condition of affairs i
for Minister to give his personal attention to the matter.
Information contained in my immediately preceding telegram
is an evident indication that Turkey desires to come to a settlement.
[1120—649]