"ملف رقم ١٣٥٦ لسنة ١٩١٢ الجزء ١ "الحدود التركية-الفارسية:- مفاوضات في القسطنطينية." [و‎‎٤‎٧] (٨٨٥/١٠٣)

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government]
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PERSIA.
[June 12.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
[Further Amended Copy.]
[ 25042 ] No. 1.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir P. Cox to Mr. Parker.—(Received June 12.)
Dear Mr. Parker, Muscat, May 21, 1912.
I ENCLOSE informally a copy of a letter with enclosures which I am posting
provisionally by this mail to the Government of India. I say “ provisional,” because it
refers to the advance copy of your memorandum received from you personally, and on
receipt of the memorandum in its final form officially I may need to modify my letter,
should the contents of the memorandum have been modified.
On receipt of the latter I will telegraph to the India Office as to whether my letter
(enclosed) can be accepted officially or whether an amended cop } 7 follows.
I am sending a copy of this letter and enclosures privately to Sir A. Hirtzel.
Yours sincerely,
P. z. COX.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir P. Cox to Government of India.
[Note by Mr. Parker. —My comments are inserted in italics. Some of the points have
already been dealt with on the telegraphic correspondence.—A. P.]
gj r) ' Muscat, May 21, 1912.
IN submitting the accompanying notes relating to points of detail in Mr. Alwyn
Parker’s memorandum of April 1912 on the subject of “ the frontier between Moham-
merah and Turkey,” I have the honour to offer the following observations for the
consideration of the Government of India, on the bearing of the memorandum as a
whole and the line of policy advocated therein.
2 . The findings arrived at in the memorandum may be summarised as follows :—
(a.) As regards the riparian tract west of Mohammerah, it is agreed that there is
a case for supporting a Persian claim for the formal recognition and confirmation of the
status quo as represented by the boundary locally observed.
(b.) As regards the district of Hawizeh, it is suggested that there are no grounds
for any modification of the arbitrary line inserted in the mediating commissioners’ rough
diagram as indicating the boundary recommended for adoption in respect of that locality.
My suggestion in my memorandum under discussion was overruled (see tele
gram No. 335 of the llih April, 1912, to St. Petersburg). I may add that I am
convinced by Sir P. Cox’s facts and arguments on this point that my suggestion was
inexpedient. — A. P.
(c.) As regards the waters of the Shatt-el-Arab, it is held that a claim on the part
of Persia to the mid-channel boundary is untenable.
(d.) Apart from the above main issues under immediate consideration, Mr. Parker
expresses the apprehension that the question of the status of the Sheikh of Mohammerah
in the matter of jurisdiction over those of his tribesmen who tenant lands in admittedly
Turkish limits must come up incidentally for discussion in the course of the frontier
negotiations now in progress at Constantinople. He merely touches on this problem
for the purpose of indicating the probability of the contingency arising.
My words were that it (( is not unlikely to be discussed A I am preparing a
separate paper on this question. — A. P.
(e.) Lastly, he suggests, at the conclusion ot his memorandum, that the Sheikh
of Mohammerah seems to be pursifi^eavgoj^^vof territorial encroachment by means
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23 AUG 1 S 12 i ; ; ' 23 AUG 1912
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