HC Deb 21 April 1885 vol 297 cc310-1
BARON HENRY DE WORMS

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it is the fact, as stated by the special correspondent of The Daily News at Krasnovodsk, that the Military Attaché of the British Embassy at St. Petersburg has been refused permission to visit the railway which is now being made from Krasnovodsk to Sarakhs; and, whether any confirmation has been received from Her Majesty's Minister at Teheran of the following statement, made by the same correspondent, as to the Russo-Persian frontier:— The Russian advance into Turkestan necessitated a more exact delimitation of the Persian frontier from the Caspian to Sarakhs. This work was gone over a year or two ago, and was supposed to have been definitely settled. The boundary was laid down, but now the Russians are taking it upon themselves to determine what had been determined, and to settle where the boundary had been fixed. I understand that one subject of dispute is connected with the Attrek River, near its junction with the Caspian. About forty miles from its mouth this stream splits in two, and these branches flow separately into the bay of Hassan Kuli. The Attrek was settled to be the boundary between Persian and Russian soil; but whether the Commissioners forgot to define which branch of that river was to be the frontier or not I cannot say. Russia now claims the southern fork, and Persia claims the northern. The Russians, I am informed, have taken a very effective means of settling the question; they have constructed, or are constructing, a dam where the northern branch separates, and thus it will cease to exist. The southern branch will thus become the River Attrek, and that as been defined as the frontier?

LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE

Her Majesty's Government are not aware that the Military Attaché at St. Petersburg has been refused permission to visit the railway in question. The Russo-Persian Frontier as far as Lutfabad is defined in the Treaty of December 9–21, 1881. ("Asia," No. 1, 1882, p. 8.) The appointment of Commissioners to mark out the Frontier was delayed for a long time, as the Russian Commissioner did not reach Teheran until July, 1883. The position of Hassan Kuli was one of the first questions to be decided by the Commission. Details on this subject will be found in "Asia," No. 1, 1884, p. 89. It is the case that the Attrek enters the Caspian by two channels. No information has reached Her Majesty's Government as to the construction of the dam referred to, though rumours on the subject existed some years ago. The question of Hassan Kuli has not, as far as they are aware, been settled yet, as the Commission proceeded to the Eastern instead of the Western end of the Frontier.