'Administration Report of the Persian Gulf for the Year 1938' [‎5r] (9/60)

( iii )
The increase in the personnel employed in 1936-37 is explained by the
fact that during the two former years the refinery and a large construction
programme was in progress.
During the latter part of the year the Bahrain Petroleum Company carried
out the important development of refining in Bahrain oil from Hasa.
During the latter half of the year the Bahrain Petroleum Company and
their rivals, Petroleum Concessions Limited, resumed negotiations with the
Shaikh for the " Unallotted Area i.e. the area in Bahrain territory not
covered by the Bahrain Petroleum Company's present concession. Negotia
tions were in progress at the end of the year.
At Kuwait early in the year the Kuwait Oil Company found oil in quan
tities which indicated the presence of a large field. Later in the year oil was
struck in a second well, and though oil has not been found in commercially
exploitable quantities there is every hope that this object will shortly be
achieved.
In Hasa early in the year the California Arabian Standard Oil Company
struck oil, and by the end of the year were sending oil to Bahrain for refining.
Medical. —Throughout the year excellent work continued to be carried
out in the dispensary at Kuwait and the hospitals at Bahrain and Muscat.
These institutions are attached to the Political Agencies, are maintained by
the Government of India, and are in charge of Assistant Surgeons of the Indian
Medical Department, who are also the State Quarantine Medical Officers.
In addition to the humanitarian aspect of these institutions they have a valu
able political effect in influencing local public opinion in our favour. They
are under the administrative control of the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Surgeon, Bushire, who,
for international purposes, is Chief Quarantine Medical Officer for the Arab
States of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . A new dispensary at Dibai, on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. ,
under the charge of a Sub-Assistant Surgeon of the Indian Medical Depart
ment was sanctioned at the end of the year.
Kuwait. —No advance was made during the year towards the settlement
of the difficult question of the Shaikh of Kuwait's date gardens in Iraq.
One case of incursion by Iraqi police cars into Kuwait territory occurred
in June. No satisfaction was forthcoming from the Iraqi Government in
reply to the protest made regarding this incident.
The Saudi trade blockade of Kuwait continued throughout the year.
Towards the end of the year, however, the Saudi Government displayed a
more reasonable attitude in the negotiations which were proceeding between
them and His Majesty's Government on the subject, and there were distinct
hopes that this difficult question might soon be settled.
The year under review saw an outbreak of agitation by the people of
Kuwait against the Shaikh for a more democratic form of government. The
Shaikh, contrary to Arab traditions, and to his promise to his people on his
accession that he would have a nominated Advisory Council, as had existed
in the days of the great Shaikh Mubarak, had administered the State purely
on autocratic lines, without even consulting his own family. In October,
after an outbreak of local agitation which the Shaikh succeeded in suppressing
temporarily, His Majesty's Government advised the Shaikh that he would be
wise to associate his people with himself in the administration of his State by
the formation of an Advisory Council. The Shaikh did not take this advice
and as the result of a strong popular movement, to which the Shaikh yielded,
an Executive Council was elected, which drew up a Constitution for the State
depriving the Shaikh of much of his power. A communication was, however,
made by His Majesty's Government to the Shaikh and the Council that by
virtue of the former's treaties with His Majesty's Government the conduct of
foreign affairs of the State would continue to remain in their hands, and that
the relations of His Majesty's Government with the State would be conducted
with the Shaikh. This the Council accepted without demur. In December
the Shaikh, with the aid of certain of his Bedouin tribesmen, but without
bloodshed, succeeded in overawing the Council, and in dissolving it. A
fresh Council was elected but never met, a dispute between it and the Shaikh
having arisen over the Constitution drawn up by the first Council, which the