ملف ‎٤٤٨٠\ ١٩٢٣ الجزء ١ "الخليج الفارسي: ملكية شط العرب" [ظ‎‎٢‎٠‎١] (٧٣٢/٤١٣)

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2. Mr. Secretary Amery will have observed from co. .espondence endin • u
Admiralty letters of the 25th February and the 6th March, that the boundarv?'
the mouth of that river has already been the subject of detailed examination
department and the Admiralty. This correspondence, which has no doubt a^
been forwarded to the High Commissioner, will have shown him that, even
from any fresh complication which might possibly be introduced by the passage
Persian Territorial Waters Bill claiming a right to exercise police supervision ° l
zone extending to a limit of 8 nautical miles from the Persian coast, the situatm* '*
one of no little complexity and might well give rise to serious difficulties 18
Iraq and Persia. Detween
3. It will be seen from paragraph 7 of their letter of the 25th February th
on the information at present available, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiral! •
are of opinion that the Abadan and Abdullah banks cannot at present be regard d
as territory. If this view is correct, the Rooka Channel lies in the open sea- and 60
His Majesty’s Government have never admitted and have always objected to
claims of foreign States to exercise rights of jurisdiction or control over the waters of
the high seas outside the 3-mile limit of their territorial waters, they could lofficallv
refuse to admit a Persian claim to exercise jurisdiction over this channel. But th
Persian Government may not share this view, and if they were able to establish that
the Abadan Bank is territory, their claim would probably be much more difficult to
refute. It would, therefore, seem useful if the High Commissioner could arrange for
a fresh survey to be unostentatiously carried out, every precaution being taken to
avoid arousing Persian suspicions, and the actual situation of the Persian and Iraqi
coast lines at low-water spring tides to be precisely ascertained, with a view to the
possibility of refuting such a Persian claim, taking into account the fact that, in the
opinion of His Majesty's Government, the.base line for the determination of the limit
of territorial waters is the line of mean low-water spring tides, following the
sinuosities of the coast.
4. Even if, however, it can be abundantly established that the Abadan and
Abdullah banks are not territory, the position would still be liable to lead to disputes,
as there seems to be no universally recognised principle of international law
governing the lateral limitation of the territorial waters at the mouth of a river
between the two riparian States. Persia might, therefore, claim jurisdiction over at
least a part of the navigable channel between the Rooka Channel and the river mouth.
Although it might be possible to resist such a claim on the lines suggested in
paragraph 8 of the Admiralty letter of the 25th February, and although even if a
part of the channel were in Persian territorial waters, there would still be a right of
innocent passage along it, it is clearly desirable in the interests of Iraq to avoid the
possibility of disputes of this nature by agreeing to the adoption of some such scheme
as that advocated in the two memoranda enclosed in the Foreign Office letter of the
7th March. By placing the whole waterway of the Shatt-el-Arab, including Iraqi
and Persian territorial waters and (so far as concerns ships of the contracting States)
the Rooka Channel, under the control of the proposed conservancy board, on which
Persia is to be adequately represented, such inducements to Persia as may at present
exist to raise contentious issues of this nature wdll be removed. Sir Austen
Chamberlain agrees entirely with the view of the High Commissioner that the
uncertainty of the present situation at the mouth of the river is an argument which
should prove of primary importance for persuading the Iraqi Government of the
necessity for a general settlement with Persia on the lines now under consideration.
5. I am to add that any claim by Iraq, whether based on legislation or not, to
control the Rooka Channel would be inconsistent with the views of His Majesty’s
Government in the United Kingdom, as stated in paragraphs III (c) and (d) of their
memorandum sent last December to the League of Nations in reply to the “ Schedule
of Points regarding Territorial Waters,” drawn up by the Preparatory Committee
for the First Codification Conference.
6. Copies of this correspondence are being sent to the Admiralty, the Air
Ministry, the Board of Trade, the Dominions Office and the India Office; and a copy
of a despatch to Sir R. Clive is enclosed herein, for Mr. Amery s information.
I am, &c.
MONTEAGLE.
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