'File 73/7 III (D 24) Status of Kuwait & Anglo-Turkish negotiations' [‎45r] (97/709)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty s Government.J
ASIATIC TURKEY AND ARABIA.
[February 26.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
S ection 2.
[9216]
No. 1.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. to Foreign Office.—{Received February 26.)
THE Under-Secretary of State for India presents his compliments to the Under-
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and forwards herewith, for the information of the
Secretary of State, copy of an enclosure in a covering letter from the political resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. dated the 4th August, 1912, on the subject of the limits of Koweit. A
copy of map referred to in the enclosure is the only one in the possession of the India
Office, and its early return is requested.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , February 25, 1913.
I HAVE the honour to refer to the Secretary of State's telegram of the 26th July
galling for evidence demonstrating the control over tribes exercised by Sheikh Mobarak
within the limits referred to in Mr. J. G. Lorimer's Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
2. A reference to the political agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Koweit on the subject has been necessary
and on receipt of his reply Government will be addressed by telegraph. Meanwhile
I have the honour to state that a careful study of records since 1897 bearing on the
question of the limits of the Sheikh's effective influence inclines me to the view, as I
shall proceed to explain, that, if it is still possible to arrange for the adoption of a slight
modification of Mr. Lorimer's line, it would be expedient to do so,
I would explain in this connection that both when telegraphing to the Government
of India on the 26th March, 1911 and on the 6th July, 1912, I was absent from my
head-quarters and archives and had to reply without reference to them.
3. I may commence by inviting reference to the line which Captain Shakespear
indicated, in a report on his tour in the Koweit hinterland, as being in his opinion the
boundary of the principality. It is somewhat less extensive, but to the southwards, a
good deal more definite, than that indicated by Mr. Lorimer, upon such scanty information
upon the subject as was available to him. It, however, includes Anta'a (Nta'), a group
of villages of considerable importance (vide Map of the Koweit hinterland Survey of India
June 1910, 8-miles to 1-inch), which Captain Knox's reports of 1908 give good grounds
for regarding as within the domains of Sheikh Mobarak ; and the statement of the Porte
that it is part of the vilayet of Bussorah is presumably on all fours with their claim that
Koweit is also in that province. Its headman in 1908, at any rate, was a nominee of
the Sheikh of Koweit.
4. It will be seen that Captain Shakespear also includes within the limits of Koweit
district, Jazirat 'al Amayir, an island inside Musallamiyah Bay. This is identical with
the Bay of Balbul which was described by Mr. J. C. Gaskin, in his report to the resident
on the 6th September, 1897, as the southern boundary of Koweit. This report, it would
appear, was not forwarded to Government, though an account of the results of Mr. Gaskin's
visit, in connection with which the report was made, will be found in 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. letter of
the 20th September, 1897 to the Government of India.
This testimony, given at a date considerably anterior to our assurances, is of
considerable value. It is true that the political resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. expressed doubts as to the
validity of the Sheikh's claim to the island when forwarding it to the Government of
India in 1902, but he gave no reasons for doing so, and the fact that the attempt of the
Turks made about that time to place troops on the island failed, would seem to give us
ground to include the island within the principality. There are no Turkish troops on the
island at the present time.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir P. Cox to Government of India.
Sir,
Bushire, August 4, 1912.
[2808 cc—2]