burgh, that the Russian Government referred with satisfaction to the mutual assurances which were made on this subject in 1834 and in 1838; and that Her Majesty's Government considered that the best mode of confirming both Powers in those sentiments was that Persia, while steadily maintaining her rights as an independent Power, should studiously fulfil in all respects her Treaty engagements with each, and so insure the continuance of the friendship which both Powers, even for their own interests, should desire to maintain with her. Count de Brnnnow expressed satisfaction. Lord A. Loftus. I am, &c., GRANVILLE." On the 23rd December, 1874, M. de Westmann, the Russian Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, again assured Her Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburgh that he fully admitted the existence, at that time, of the understanding arrived at in 1834 and 1838. The engagements entered into between Great Britain and Russia to respect and promote the integrity and independence of Persia were renewed and confirmed in 1888 by an exchange of Notes, from which the following are extracts: The Marquis of Salisbury to Sir R. Morier. (Extract.) Foreign Office, February 21, 1888. "I HAVE noticed in the extracts from the Russian press which you have forwarded to this Office that there is a tendency to attach importance to Sir H. Drummond Wolff's appointment as Her Majesty's Minister at Tehran, and to look upon it as evidence of an endeavour on the part of Her Majesty's Government to obtain predominant influence in Persia, to the detriment of Russia. "He [Sir H. Wolff] will be authorised to give the Shah the strongest assurances of the continued desire of Her Majesty's Government to respect and promote the integrity and independence of Persia, and it would be satisfactory if he could be enabled to state that Her Majesty's Government had ascertained, by an exchange of views with that of Russia, that the agreement arrived at on this subject in 1834 and 1838, and renewed by mutual assurances on several subsequent occasions, remains in full force." The reply of the Russian Government is recorded in the following despatch : (Extract.) The Marquis of Salisbury to Sir R. Morier. Foreign Office, March 12, 1888. "M. DE STAAL called here this afternoon and read to me a despatch from M. de Giers. His Excellency was not authorized to leave a copy of it. "The despatch was written in very friendly terms. "After briefly recapitulating the interview which he had with your Excellency, and in which he had stated that he would convey through M. de Staal the definitive conclusions of the Russian Government on the several points touched on in the despatch, M. de Giers went on to mention and discuss those points. "In the first place, as regards our desire for an assurance that the engagement between the two Governments to respect and promote the integrity and independence of Persia is considered by the Russian Government as remaining in full force, M. de Giers states that, although, in their opinion, there are no present grounds for apprehending any danger to Persia, and although they have received no communication on the subject from Tehran, yet the Russian Government have no objection to placing again on record that their views on this point are in no way altered. The Persian Government, his Excellency adds, have on more than one occasion had tangible proof of this; and he alludes to a military demonstration made at the request of the Shah in 1880 on the Caucasian frontier, when a portion of the Province of Azerbaïdjan was suffering from the incursions of bands of Kurds. "I have expressed to M. de Staal, and I request your Excellency to offer M. de Giers, my best thanks for this frank and courteous communication of the views of the Russian Government. It has been highly satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government to learn that those views are so much in accordance with their own; and they owe their acknowledgments to M. de Giers for enabling Sir H. D. Wolff to inaugurate his mission by an assurance to the Shah that the engagements between Great Britain and Russia to respect and promote the integrity and independence of the Persian kingdom have again been renewed and confirmed." Sir R. Morier. I am, &c., AGREEMENT between Great Britain and Russia respecting the Succession to the Persian Throne.-August-September, 1834. ABBAS MIRZA, who was Prince Royal of Persia under Fath-Ali Shab, and who had been named by His Majesty as Heir Apparent to the Throne, died on the 22nd October, 1833, during the lifetime of his father, leaving several sons. At his death the question arose as to the succession to the Persian Throne, and a correspondence passed between the British and Russian Governments on the subject. Various candidates aspired to the Throne: but in the case of Fath-Ali Shah and his predecessor, Aga Mohammed, it had been laid down as a principle, in the selection o the Heir to the Throne, that he should be descended from Kajars, by his mother as well as by his father, and Abbas Mirza was accordingly chosen, in preference to his elder brother; Fath-Ali Shah was, therefore, anxious on the occasion of the death of Abbas Mirza, to nominate his grandson, Mahommed Meerza (eldest son of the late Crown Prince, Abbas Mirza, by an Akdi* wife of the highest rank of the Kajar Tribe) as Heir. The British and Russian Governments were in favour of the pretensions of Prince Mohammed Meerza, son of Abbas, they being of opinion that this choice was, on the whole, the most eligible one, and the British Resident and the Russian Ambassador at Tehran were accordingly instructed to recommend the Shah to settle the crown upon that grandson. His Majesty accepted this advice, and eventually decided upon nominating that Prince as his successor. The correspondence which passed on the subject was laid before Parliament in 1839 with the "Correspondence relating to Persia and Afghanistan,” and it included the following despatches (see "State Papers," Vol. 23, page 863): (1.) Substance of a Despatch from Count Nesselrode to Count Medem; and communicated to Viscount Palmerston by Count Medem, 22nd August, 1834. (Translation.) "We expect to see the Representatives of Russia and England in Persia, authorized to act in concert in a spirit of peace and union, as the despatch from my office of the 30th of June has already expressed the desire should be the case. "The importance of providing, with this view, the two Representatives with corresponding instructions, is no wise diminished by the mere fact of the nomination of the hereditary Prince. That event, however satisfactory it may be, is nevertheless not in itself sufficient to consolidate the tranquillity of Persia, and to remove from that country all the elements of internal discord and disturbance. "We consequently continue to think that a conformity of language and conduct on the part of the Representatives of Russia and of Great Britain, would, of all political combinations, be the one which would most effectually contribute to maintain the tranquillity of Persia, and to prepare the country for a new reign, without exposing that Empire to the disorders inseparable from any contested succession." "SIR, 66 (2.) Viscount Palmerston to Mr. Bligh. Foreign Office, 5th September, 1834. "I have to instruct you to take an opportunity of expressing to the Russian Government the satisfaction of His * A higher Order of Marriage than the "Sighal." Majesty's Government at the decision which has been taken by the Shah of Persia to nominate Mahommed Meerza as the successor to his throne; an event which it is to be hoped will avert the danger of civil war in Persia on the next demise of the Crown; and you will also say that His Majesty's Government are gratified to find that the Governments of Great Britain and Russia are acting, with regard to the affairs of Persia, in the same spirit, and are equally animated by a sincere desire to maintain, not only the internal tranquillity, but also the independence and integrity of Persia.* "His Majesty's Government will at all times find a real pleasure in co-operating with that of Russia for such purposes; and instructions have been sent to the British Resident at Tehran to communicate confidentially with the Russian Representative, in furtherance of the common views of the two Governments. I am, &c., The Hon. J. D. Bligh. PALMERSTON." (3.) Mr. Bligh to Viscount Palmerston.-(Received (Extract.) St. Petersburgh, December 8, 1834. I have just seen Count Nesselrode, who has given me some details respecting the death of the Shah of Persia. Count Nesselrode seems to anticipate that Persia will inevitably become the scene of civil commotion, and expresses his satisfaction that, under such circumstances, the British and Russian Governments should have come to a good understanding upon this matter. Viscount Palmerston. J. D. BLIGH." Fath-Ali Shah died in October, 1834, when Mahommed Shah succeeded him on the throne. In the following year, Shah Mahommed nominated his son Nassir-ud-din, then an infant only 4 years old, as his successor. Nassir-ud-din was the eldest son of the Shah by an "Akdi-Kajar" wife, and his nomination was approved by the British, Russian, and other European Govern ments. Shah Mahommed died on the 4th September, 1848, and on the 20th October, the Heir Apparent, who was then about 19 years of age, entered Tehran, and formally ascended the throne as Nassir-ud-din Shah; and, in August, 1852, the Shah nominated his son, Prince Moo-eer-ood (Muzaffer-ed-deen), Heir to the throne. * See Understanding between Great Britain and Russia, 1834, page 209. AGREEMENT between Great Britain and Russia respecting a Map of the Turco-Persian Boundary,—March, 1865.* THE Treaty of Erzeroum was signed on the 31st May, 1847,† for the settlement of the Turco-Persian boundary. Subsequent meetings of the Commission were held in 1849, 1850, and 1851 at Bagdad and Mohammerah. " In 1851 Lord Palmerston, in a despatch to Sir H. Seymour, at St. Petersburgh, stated that it was clear that no settlement would be come to except by an arbitrary decision on the part of Great Britain and Russia; and he therefore proposed that the general line of frontier should be traced by the Agents of the Mussulman Powers at Constantinople, assisted by the Commissioners, in conformity with the stipulations of the Treaty of Erzeroum, leaving doubtful localities to be settled in detail in the future. The Russian Government agreed to this proposal, and the work of surveying the country from Mount Ararat to the Persian Gulf was then commenced. When this was done the preparation of a map of the Turco-Persian frontier, embracing territory 700 miles in length by from 20 to 40 miles broad, was put in hand, and this work lasted from November, 1857, till March 1865, when the Porte was informed in May of that year that, "in the opinion of the Mediating Powers, the future line of boundary between the respective dominions of the Sultan and the Shah was to be found within the limits traced on the Map; that the two Mahommedan Governments should themselves mark out the line; and that, in the event of any differences arising between them in regard to any particular locality, the points in dispute should be referred to the decision of the Governments of England and Russia." This boundary has remained unsettled down to the present time, and disputes have frequently arisen between the Turkish and Persian Governments respecting their respective claims to land, in the Posht-i-Ku District, known by the Turks as the Seyd-Hassan Lands and by the Persians as Bagsai and Ghoreibeh. These districts include a portion of the Saifi and Malkhatari Lands. In 1873 an Agreement, which had been entered into between the Two Powers two or three years previously, was renewed, by which it was agreed that Ghoreibeh and Bagsai should remain intact, and should not be interfered with on either side, and that neither side should claim or institute any right of possession by cultivation, or otherwise, until the Commission appointed had expressed its opinion. * A temporary Boundary Agreement was signed between Persia and Turkey on the 3rd August, 1869. See page 176. In September, 1869, a copy of this "Identic Map" was officially communicated to the Turkish and Persian Governments respectively (see note, page 176). † Page 169. |