"الحدود الكويتية-السعودية". [و‎‎٧] (٤٨/١٣)

EXPRESS LETTER
6 >
From
To
Political, Kuwait
Prodrome, Bahrain
No.R/54 (4/1).
Dated the 25th August, 1948.
CONFIDENTIAL.
gttS^
Reference your telegram No.689 dated the 2nd August,
1948 about Gurain.
2. I have discussed the matter with both His Highness
the ShaiEh and Abdulla Kulla, as well as paying a visit to
the site in question.
3. When I brought the subject up during an interview
with His Highness, both he and Abdulla Mulla claimed that
Gurain Wells as well as Gurain Hill were within the Kuwait
boundary. However, His Highness made the topographical
mistake of claiming that it did not make much difference
which was treated as the boundary mark, as the Wells and the
Hill were situated on an East - West line: and he also
admitted that he was relying on the "Map of the Kuwait
Hinterland" compiled by Knox and Bhakespear, where he may
have been misled by the fact that the boundary is marked by a
thick coloured line which embraces some of the Neutral Zone’
as well.
4. On Monday the 16th August I drove down to Gurain
accompanied by one of Shaikh Abdulla Mubarak*s guides, Saud
Feshetan: I asked the guide, and also several Bedouin on
the way, what they would understand by a simple reference to
"Gurain", and they all agreed Xjrafc they would mean the Hill.
This seems to me natural, as the Hill is an obvious landmark,
a clea®* pillar of rock in arptherwise featureless landscape.
It was some time however, before the guide could find the
Wells, which consisted of five or six, all silted up: and the
situation was further complicated by the fact that the guide
claimed that slightly larger wells, some 6 miles to the North
East and which I presume are those marked on the General
Staff Map No. 3954 War Office 1936 as GARUT, were also known
as Gurain Wells. He said he had never heard the name Garut.
<_/
Political Agent, Kuwait
MB.