'File 53/32 V (D 128) Kuwait Miscellaneous' [‎158r] (336/474)

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Exclusion of prosperous Indians from Kuwait ,
P.R. Re our discussion on which you asked me to mahe a
note,the main points appear to be as follows.
( The Sheikh wishes to keep out prosperous Indians desirous of setting
iip as merchants because he is afraid that,owing to their ability to
live more cheaply than his own people and to their greater business
j
japacity,they will drive many of his own merchants out of business.
Moreover,much of the profit that the Indians would make they would
remit home ,
I, Indians are being driven out of Iran and Irao and are therefore keen
to try their luck in Kuwait. This problem has not come up before because
it is only recently that exclusion of Indians has became a serious part
of the policy of Iran and Iraq.
. No obstacles are placed in the way of Indians desiring to go to Bahrain,
iuscat or the Trucial Sheikhdoms .Although Bahrain may be regarded as in a
different category,the Truciai Sheikhdoms are to a certain extent analogous ]
to Kuwait,being like it relatively undeveloped and having a half-settled,
half-nomadic population;the capital which Indians have brought into these
states has been useful and might also be so in Kuwait .Against this it may
be argued that Kuwait has no need of Indian capital,as there are ample
resources accumulated from pearling,boatbuilding and boat-sailing,^11 of
"hich activities are on a vastly greater scale at Kuwait than on the
-Hicial Coast,and that in any case Kuwait would probably lose ton the
balance ,as the Indians would remit most of their profits home to India.
- The proposal to exclude Indians from Kuwait is from one point of view not
altogether fair,as the Indian taxpayer pays half the expenses of the
Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. (the other half being borne by K .M.G.) and the Sheikh owes his
^dependence to the British protection which necessitates these expenses,
fn the other hand it may be argued that H.-'.G and the Government of India
cannot have it both ways, and that, if it is announced to the world that the
^eikh is independent,then,in matters which do not affect any vital BritishW
interests,he should be allowed a certain amount of scope in the exercise
this independence,even if his policy is harmful to individual British
T ,
^dian subjects.
' J '-t is not in the interests of H. .G- and the Government of India that
there should be internal trouble in Kuwait,and clearly an influx of Indian