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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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    "id": "470155829",
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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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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1948-07-01",
            "month": 7,
            "year": 1948
        }
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{
    "seq": 7,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875456/875456-02-007.tif",
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    "ocrText": "introduced by the reference to tribes. It is scarcely conceivable that\na straight line from the Uebi Scebeli to the British Somaliland boundary,\nwhich was presumably intended in the 1897 accord, would coincide with a\nline separating tribes \"toward the coast\" from those \"toward the Ogaden\",\nand it is probable that tribal base areas and tribal grazing lands\noverlap in such a manner that no such line of separation could be drawn.\nHowever, since no tribes are named, and since the reference to tribes is\nso ambiguous, the portion of the article confirming the 1897 accord\nseems to take precedence over the other portions. Although the 1908\nconvention included a provision for demarcation of the boundary on the\nground, the line was never surveyed or marked.\nNo primary source giving the line as it was shown on the Menelik\nmap is available. Search in Washington has failed to reveal any repro-\nduction of the Menelik map. The descriptions of the 1897 line given by\nthe Stefani Agency and Nerazzini are of little value for drawing the\nline on a map because they do not state the exact point on the British\nSomaliland boundary at which the line ends. However, it is stated by\nManlio Magini, an Italian student of East African frontier changes, that\nthe line extended from the Von der Decken Falls on the Juba to the inter-\nsection of the parallel 8°N. and the meridian 48°E. 1 This line is shown\non State Department Map No. 10652, \"Southeastern Ethiopia, Status of\nBoundaries - 1946\", and is labeled \"Boundary shown on Menelik's map,\n1897\". Northeast of the Uebi Scebeli this line and the line indicated\nas \"Boundary according to Convention of May 16, 1908\", which is shown\nidentical to it on this map, should take precedence over other lines as\na tentative boundary.\nIn the past it has been assumed that the official descriptions of\nthe line, such as those of the Stefani Agency and Nerazzini, were in\nconflict with the line shown on Menelik's map. Italian writers them-\nselves within recent decades have called attention to this supposed\ndiscrepancy.² The wording \"180 miglia\" has been interpreted to mean\n180 miles, whereas the line. on the Menelik map reportedly represented\na line much nearer the coast than this. It is possible to show, how-\never, that the textual description and the map are not necessarily in\nconflict. Von der Decken Falls on the Giuba are roughly 150 English\nmiles from the nearest point on the coast and the intersection of 8°N.\nand 48°E. is about 115 miles from the coast. A straight line connecting\nthese two points would be about 180 English miles from the coast only\nalong its middle portion. Neither the Nerazzini nor the Stefani reports\nstated specifically that the line was exactly 180 miles (or miglia)\nfrom the coast at all points. They merely stated that it was about 180\nmiglia from the coast. Thus, Nerazzini, even if he had been thinking\nin terms of miles, might have estimated the distance from the middle\nportion of the line to the coast, and in writing his report might have\nmade a general statement, not intended to be taken too literally.\n1. Manlio Magini, Vanazioni territoriali nell' A.O. dal 1880 al 1938.\n(Firenze, 1939) p. 48.\n2. Magini, p. 51.\n- 4 -"
}