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    "label": "Central Intelligence Agency Report M-6, Note on the Boundary Between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia",
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    "title": "Central Intelligence Agency Report M-6, Note on the Boundary Between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "seq": 4,
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    "ocrText": "NOTE ON THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN ITALIAN\nSOMALILAND AND ETHIOPIA\n1. Summary and Conclusion.\nThe Ethiopian-Italian Somaliland boundary has never been delimited\nsatisfactorily in spite of two attempts to do so. Neither the accord\nof 1897 nor the Convention of 1908 defines the line clearly enough\nto form the basis for demarcation. An entirely new agreement should be\ndrawn up for this purpose. Pending such agreement, the line reportedly\nshown on the map used by the Emperor Menelik II in 1897 should take\nprecedence over other conjectural lines as the tentative boundary\nnortheast of the Uebi Scebeli River.\nThe line drawn in 1897 by the Emperor Menelik was accepted by\nthe Italian government. Heretofore there has been an impression that\nthe 1897 accord consisted of this map and a written description of the\nline, and that the two were contradictory. It seems, however, that the\nmap was the only official document of the accord other than the Italian\ntelegram of acceptance. The contemporary written descriptions appear\nto have been no more than official statements made in Italy by Italians.\nThese could not be considered as legally binding on Ethiopia.\nEven if the Italian statements could be considered as having\nlegal validity, they do not necessarily disagree as seriously as formerly\nsupposed with the information said to be on the Menelik map. According\nto the Italian statements, the boundary was to be a line roughly paral-\nlel to the coast at a distance of about 180 miglia inland, whereas the\nmap was thought to represent a line lying nearer the coast. The Italian\nstatements, however, were probably intended to give only a general idea\nof the proposed boundary without describing it in detail. It is also\npossible that the 1897 Italian statements used the word miglia in its\ncolloquial sense to mean \"kilometers\".\nNo reproduction of the Menelik map appears to be available in\nWashington and a definitive statement regarding the boundary as shown\non the map must await a search of Italian archives. However, according\nto secondary descriptions, the line extended from the Von der Decken\nFalls on the Giuba (Juba) River to the British Somaliland boundary at\nthe intersection of 8°N., 48°E. This intersection is approximately 180\nkilometers from the nearest point on the coast.\nArticle IV of the Convention of May 16, 1908 between Ethiopia and\nItaly defined the boundary northeast of the Uebi Scebeli as that ac-\ncepted by the Italian government in 1897. There are some confusing\nstatements in this article about a division between tribes, but in the\nNote: This report was submitted on 1 July to the intelligence organi-\nzations of the Departments of State, Army, Navy, and the Air\nForce for information, at which time comments were solicited.\n- 1 -"
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