Turkey contended that the League could not give a binding decision ; the question was referred to the Hague Court, and was pending when further military movements by the Turks in the neighbourhood of the Brussels line in Sept. 1925 resulted in the violent deportation into the interior of Turkey of Christians living immediately to the north and in some cases even to the south of the provisional frontier; while some 3,00o Chaldeans took refuge in a destitute condition in `Iraq. The League appointed a second commission to examine the complaints on both sides and report any violations of the frontier.
This report was presented to the League in December and left no doubt as to the harshness with which the refugees had been handled by the Turks. The ruling of the Hague Court—that an arbitral decision was binding—had already been received ; but the Turkish delegate refused to accept the decision of the League and withdrew. Turkey however renewed her proposal of a plebiscite of the Mosul population, and further offered (r) a four nation Pact (Britain, Turkey, 'Iraq and Persia) which should guarantee the integrity and independence of 'Iraq; (2) the cession of the valuable Dyala basin containing some of the oil fields of the vilayet and the main sources of 'Iraq's irrigation. In the ab sence of the Turkish delegate, the League awarded Mosul to `Iraq under certain conditions which were accepted by the British House of Commons five days later.
agreed between Great Britain and Turkey and 'Iraq. Turkey enjoys a share in the royalties on Mosul oil for a period of 25 years. Subsequently an agreement was reached on the compen sation to be paid for Turkish public works in the former vilayet. An exchange of notes following the treaty gave Turkey the option of capitalizing her share of the oil royalties at a present value of .15oo,000. This was an important event both for politics and oil.
The final Turko-`Iraq boundary line was a compromise arrange ment between Great Britain and Turkey and as such it deprived the surviving Assyrian Christians of their old mountain homes in the Hakkiari and Jelu region in the north, leaving the people south of the line as refugees, and their homes north of it. It broke into two the heart of historic Kurdistan and separated from each other the two sections of the Kurdish race—the Bohtan and the Bandinan. It interfered with the time-honoured trade route as carried on by river rafts, cutting off the regions of Jezire-ibn-Omar and Sairt politically from their natural market at Mosul. Finally it destroyed the chances of an evolution of the Kurdish tribes as a nationality for generations to come. On the other hand it did prevent the renewal of war, at this particular time the most valu able service that could be rendered in this part of the world.
In the summer of 1927, the mixed boundary commission as provided by article 3 of the treaty completed the delimitation of the frontiers by laying down sign-posts and boundary marks. A convention was signed between the three parties concerned in November ratifying the final agreement.