botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice

592. Chobe Concessions (Bechuanaland) Ltd.: Approximate delineation of Concession
Areas. (Botswana Atlas, Map 15)
This map was surveyed and drawn by Silby and Horrell, chartered surveyors, Salisbury,
Southern Rhodesia, and dated 28 May 1958. Its purpose was to indicate the main agricultural
and grazing concession areas and these are listed in an accompanying note. The map is
significant in that the Chobe River is depicted flowing through the northern channel, and no
southern channel is shown.
The 1960 Bechuanaland Protectorate Map, 1:1,000,000 Directorate of Overseas Survey
(Botswana Atlas, Map 16)
593. This map provides yet another contradiction, along with the military Maps of 1903 and
1909, the Von Frankenberg Map of 1912 and several of the Annual Reports Maps of
Bechuanaland, of the supposedly "unbroken concordance in the maps of the two parties
depicting Kasikili Island as within Namibia". 'Drawn and photographed by DOS from
material supplied by the High Commissioner for Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate,
and Swaziland', the sheet indicates the boundary along the northern and western channel of
the Chobe. In view of the scale no detail is visible in the vicinity of the island.
Bechuanaland Print Laydown 1:125,000 DOS 1964 Sheet 1725C. From photography by
Hunting Air Surveys Ltd. June-July 1962 (original available for inspection if required)
The 1965 Bechuanaland Map, 1:500,000 DOS 1965 (Botswana Atlas, Map 17)
594. As Rushworth describes it, this map is part of a series at 1:500,000, "covering Botswana,
that was intended as a quick compilation, from existing sources, for general use while the
planned 1:50,000/1:1,000,000 new mapping cover of the country was completed." It is to be
noted that the Botswana series after independence (see para 620 below) showed the boundary
in the northern channel and so did the 1965 British Map. It is to be noted that South Africa
made no protest to any of these maps. It was compiled from a print laydown (1752C)
composed from air photography taken in 1962, which shows a southern channel but this is
omitted in the 1965 Map.
595. It is by no means certain and does not follow, as Mr. Rushworth suggests, that a
cartographic error caused the placement of the boundary in the northern channel in the printed
map. In response to internal departmental enquiries, the Surveyor-General prepared an
Opinion of 18th October 1965. That Opinion resulted in a Plan 'traced in the Dept of
Surveyor-General from Print Laydown 1725C'which clearly shows the northern channel in
blue with the label 'Main channel coloured blue' (Botswana Atlas, Map 18).
596. Thus, as Mr. Rushworth conjectures, it seems Print Laydown 1725C was used in the
compilation of the 1965 Bechuanaland map but the depiction of the boundary in the northern
channel was not a draughtsman's error but deliberate in execution of the Surveyor-General's
Opinion. In accordance with usual practice, the 1965 Map contained a disclaimer: "This map
must not be considered an authority on the delimitation of international boundaries".
The British Joint Operations Graphic Ground Map 12 July 1968 1:250,000 1968
Sesheke, Zambia; South West Africa; Botswana: S. Rhodesia Produced by the Directorate of