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    "localId": "470155829",
    "label": "Central Intelligence Agency Report M-6, Note on the Boundary Between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Central Intelligence Agency Report M-6, Note on the Boundary Between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470155829",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
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            "logicalDate": "1948-07-01",
            "month": 7,
            "year": 1948
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{
    "seq": 10,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875456/875456-02-010.tif",
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    "ocrText": "CONFIDENT EAL\nThe attitude of Ethiopia regarding the location of the line was\nalso confused. When the boundary between British and Italian Somaliland\nwas surveyed and marked on the ground in 1929-1931 the work was carried\nwest along parallel 8°N. to meridian 47°E. When the British Somaliland-\nEthiopia boundary was similarly demarcated in 1931-1934 the Ethiopia\nmembers of the mixed commission agreed to start the work at the point\nwhere the British-Italian commission had stopped and proceed northwest,\nbut with the understanding that the point 8°N., 47°E. should not neces-\nsarily be considered as the trijunction point of the British, Italian\nand Ethiopian territories. I During the discussion of the Ualual case\nbefore the League, the Ethiopian government published a statement to the\neffect that the boundary was based on the Convention of 1908 which in\nturn accepted the line agreed upon in 1897. After quoting a description\nof the 1897 line similar to that of the Stefani press release of 1897,\nthe Ethiopian statement continued: \"The frontier between Somaliland and\nAbyssinia is therefore demarcated by a winding line keeping parallel at a\ndistance of 180 miles to the sinuosities of the coast-line of the Indian\nOcean.\" The same statement, however, declared that the Ethiopian govern-\nment maintained that the point at which the Anglo-Italo-Ethiopian fron-\ntiers met was 8°N., 48°E. This point, of course, is only about 115\nEnglish miles from the nearest point on the coast (although roughly 180\nkilometers from the coast). The Ethiopian representatives seem to have\nrelied upon the conflicting Italian sources in drafting this statement,\npossibly not having pertinent material in their own archives.\n6. Positions of United States and British Government Agencies.\nInquiry of the Visa Division and the Special Adviser on Geography\nof the Department of State has failed to reveal any instance when the\nDepartment was required to take a stand on this question in the past.\nThe British government apparently tried to avoid taking a stand\nin favor of either party in regard to the question of the location of\nthe trijunction point of Ethiopia, British Somaliland, and Italian\nSomaliland at the time the southern boundaries of British Somaliland\nwere demarcated. Recent official British maps favor the line ending\nat 8°N., 48°E.- However, these maps carry a note to the effect that\nboundaries have not been demarcated in all cases and their representation\n1. Geographical Journal (London), vol. 87 (April, 1936) pp. 289.\n2. Dispute Between Abyssinia and Italy. Memorandum by the Imperial\nAbyssinian Government on the Incidents at Walwal Between November\n23rd and December 5th, 1934. League of Nations Doc. No. C. 49. M.\n22. 1935. VII. (Geneva, 1935), pp. 5-6.\n3. East Africa Survey Group, Africa, 1:1,000,000, sheet Belet Uen, NB\n38, E.A.F. No. 1177 (First East Africa Edition, 1942); East Africa\nSurvey Group, East Africa, 1:500,000, sheet Rocca Littorio, NB 383,\nE.A.F., No. 705 (Second Edition, 1942).\n-- 7 -\nCONFIDENT TAL"
}