Page 300 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

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581. In forwarding the correspondence to the Government of India, Lord
Salisbury slated that it was at least.doubtful whether the right to build houses
could be claimed, that it was undesirable that the point should be made an
occasion of controversy, and that it was salislactory that the note suggested to
Mr. Taylour Thomson by us should have been couched in such general terms
that it might not elicit a rejoinder from the Persian Government.
(in') Discussion of the question in iSSz^S^.

582. The following important correspondence took place on the subject in
Secret, April 1882. No*. 3.1.J-3J6. 1883 and should be read :—
Secret E., October 1882. No. 93.
No. 334-
No. 39, dated Tehran, 9th March 1882.
From—Ronald F. Thomson, Esq., Her Majesty’s Minister at Tehran,
To - Earl Granville, K.G.> Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
I have the honor to enclose translation of a circular note which has been addressed
to the Foreign representatives by the Persian
39th January,
lit March. Minister for Foreign Affairs on the subject of the
right of foreigners to hold real property in
Persia, as well as a copy of my reply.
Your Lordship will observe that Mirza Saccd Khan contests the right of foreigners
to hold laud, but I have replied that as for many years, subjects of foreign powers, especially
Russians, have owned land in Azerbaijan and elsewhere without objection being raised by
the Persian Government. British subjects, under the most favoured nation clause of the
Treaty of 1857, could claim equal privileges, and that I therefore could not accept the
conclusions arrived at by His Excellency.

No. 335.
Translation of a note front the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs to Mr. Thomson,
dated Sth Rabi-ul-Awal ieqq = 2gth January 1SS2.
A faithful adherence to treaty stipulations between the high States is a duty incum­
bent upon both parties; it is clear that the Persian Government has been and is ready to
carry out its own obligations to their fullest extent, and there is no doubt that, animated
with a similar policy, the exalted Government which Your Excellency represents will also
not permit the slightest oversight in the due observance of treaty rights.
Owing, however, to a certain amount of carelessness which formerly took place on
the part of ill-informed subjects of both States, the purport of the 5th Article of the Com­
mercial Treaty of Turkomanchai, upon which are based the other treaties with friendly
powers, and in which the rights of foreign subjects as regards holding landed property in
Persia are fully defined, has been overstepped, thereby causing an infraction of the sover-
eign rights of this country and of the rules of its internal organization.
The Persian Foreign Department therefore having due regard to treaty rights, and
with a view to the necessary removal of abuses, considers itself bound most respectfully to
invite Your Excellency urgently to impress upon British subjects the necessity of confin­
ing themselves to the defined rights and limits which haye been assigned to them, as iiv
conformity with the above statement, the Persian Government will by treaty be fully
entitled to treat any wrongful act which may have been committed in this respect, without
its special sanction, as contrary to treaty rights.
I hope that, consistently with the feelings of perfect unanimity (existing between us),
Your Excellency will kindly afford the necessary support in this matter, and that you will
give me the pleasure of informing me that you have done so.

No. 336.
Dated Tehran, 1st March 1882.
From—Ronald Thomson, Esq., Her Majesty’s Minister at Tehran,
To—His Excbllency Mirza Saeed IChan, Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's note of the 29th of
January last (8th Rabi-ul-Awal), in which you inform me that foreign subjects have in­
fringed the 5th Article of the Treaty of Turkomanchai which lays down the rules and

a.