IOR/L/PS/12/2870

This volume is a continuation of Collection 17/5, and contains papers regarding negotiations between Persia [Iran] and Iraq at the League of Nations in 1935, mediated by Italian delegate Baron Pompeo Aloisi. The papers primarily consist of communications regarding the negotiations submitted to the Foreign Office by HM Ambassadors at Rome, Teheran and Baghdad, as well as comments by the India Office Political Department, the Admiralty, and representatives of the Governments of Persia, Iraq, and Italy.

The negotiations concerned the frontier line along the Shatt el-Arab, the possibility of granting a Persian anchorage at Abadan [Ābādān], the rights of Persian and British warships to traverse and refuel on the river, and the proposed establishment of a Conservancy Board. Following negotiations in Geneva, Rome and Tehran, the Persian and Iraqi Governments had practically agreed on three instruments: a pact of non-aggression, to be signed by Iraq, Persia and Turkey; a treaty for the peaceful settlement of international disputes between Persia and Iraq; and a treaty of friendship, which would settle the frontier question and establish the Conservancy Board.

In addition to the correspondence, the volume contains: documents circulated by the Council of the League of Nations; Reports on the Sessions of the Council submitted to the Foreign Office by C J Edmonds, Second Adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs; multiple drafts of the treaty of friendship and non-aggression treaties; and copies of notes exchanged by the Iraqi and Persian Ministers at the League of Nations. A number of these documents are written in French.

The volume includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 1).