'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations' [‎197r] (399/540)

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As an influential Arab remarked to me, " The islands (are ?) to Mubarakh but the
Turks have taken one and put soldiers therein 1 '.
The small islands of Qaru, Umm-al-Maradim, Kubbar, are all claimed by
the Shaikh as lying off his territory. All however are barren and consist only
of a rock knoll covered with sand; they are all uninhabited, contain no water
and are not visited by boats.
Falaikha Island— inhabited {vide Lorimer's Gazetteer, Volume II, pages
512-515) and unquestionably belongs to Kuwait, the present governor being
Shaikh Mubarakh's own brother. Jabir-bin-Subah. Similarly the two outliers, Mas-
chan and Uha islets, which are merely sandy knolls and uninhabited, belong
to Falaikha and consequently to Kuwait.
Bubi'yan and Warba Islands.—{Vide Lorimer's Gazetteer, Volume II, pages
324 and 1927). Both these islands are claimed by the Shaikh as part of his
Kuwait territory from ancient times and that they are so regarded by local people
is obvious from the report forwarded by my predecessor under Kuwait No. 295,
dated the 9th June 1908. The evidence therein is as strong as it is possible to
obtain from a wild, illiterate people such as the Arabs occupying the fishing
grounds on these islands. The point remaining then for decision was whether
Warba Island formed part of the mainland or of Bubiyan Island. There is no
doubt that Mubarakh himself is convinced that Warba really does form part of
Kuwait territory, and as we have recognized it as such by including a pre-emption
clause relating to it in our Bundar Shwaikh Agreement, we should be in a very
difficult position vis-A-vis Mubarakh were we now to throw doubt on his title.
From Warba Island the Kuwait boundary may be taken to run along the
Khor to Umm Kasr, but it must be remembered that the Shaikh also claims
Jazirat-as-Suf 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 No. T-io, dated the 11th June 1905),
which is ground lying opposite to Umm Kasr across the Khor on the mainland.
1 understand Jazirat-as-Suf to lie between two small creeks and to become an
island only at high tides.
General. —Having traversed the disputed boundaries, it will be convenient
to treat the area enclosed as a whole. I may mention here that 1 have personally
seen the whole of the land boundary described with the exception of some
five miles in the vicinity of Umm Kasr and the actual line between Wabrah wells
and Jazirat-al-Amayir, though I have visited Anta'a itself and toured through the
surrounding country.
All Arab Shaikhs base the territorial extent of their power upon their ability
to maintain or enforce some order over the adjacent tribes, their power to enforce
the payment of " zikat" by Bedouin and their capacity to prevent and to avenge
outrages and raids within the territorial limits claimed. Judged by these stand
ards there can be no question that Mubarakh is the paramount chief within the
limits described. He levies " zikat " from the Awazim, who are practically a
Kuwait tribe, the whole of the Umtair excepting two or three distant sections
is Nejd, most of the Ajman, the Bani Khalid and until lately also from the Dhafir.
It may be contended that though paramount as an Arab Chief his position may
still be within Turkish suzerainty. If any such right ever existed (which is
denied in toto), I would urge that there is no evidence of its ever having
been exercised or recognised within the limits described or acknowledged by the
tribes noted above. The comparatively recent occupation of a few points by
petty Turkish detachments is regarded universally among the Arabs as an
encroachment, the posts have only existed on sufferance and the men garrison
ing them cannot, after 10 years of occupation, venture beyond sight of their
walls. If it be held that so ineffective an occupation, continually protested
against by the Shaikh it may be added, can give the Turkish Government any
rights over-riding those exercised by local independent chiefs for many genera
tions, and i£ we should acquiesce in the Turkish assertion of their so-called
sovereign rights over Kuwait so far as to reduce materially the Kuwait boun
daries indicated above, I confess I regard with profound misgiving the effect
likely to be produced upon our own relations with Shaikh Mubarakh when the
matter has to be explained to him. As he has often said, he regards the British