File 22/23 III Kuwait Conference [‎31r] (61/200)

held to hotiage by a savage ruler who wlehed to impose his
•• or satisfy his desire fcr vengeance •• on the British
overnm nt or its policy, I cons der the risk infinitesimal,
though of course it is always there when a British officer
proceeds beyond the ritish frontiers into a savage country.
Ihere are hundreds of men running that risk today and there
seeiae no reason why a British expedition should be forced to
strrt to avenge any regrettable event of the kind anticipated,
ihe man selected would realise the rick and accept it as part
of the day’s work.
1C. Uith euch an adviser preeent at head ^uarterc and
always at the elbow of the Sultan of Hajd, I thins we might
exp. ct that he will adopt an even more reasonable attitude
tuan he does at present and even his attitude today is f; r
from unreasonable•
11. 1 shall in no way relax my efforts at this conference
and shall try and obtain some slight measure of agreement and
I think that there are reasonable prospects of some slig t
steps being taken to advance good rtlations uetween Irai and
Va v d« i keep impressing on the envoys oi both parties,whenever
i get an opportunity,that th^y cannot expect peace in a day.
xhe appointment oi loci inspectors on the boundary in itself
is an enormous step in advance and,if these men work
conscientiously and energetically, time will show what steps
are necessary to keep the peace and one can trust to the good
sense of both Hajd and Iraq gradually to coma to an agreement
and a policy. Iraq may find it nccese&ry to turrunder
disturbers of the peace and recalcitrant rebels ag?inst Ibn
Sa’ud without troubling itself as to thuir fate in a country
which, in the matter oi morality and justice, is about on a
level with the ook of Judges or,on the othur hand,the Sultan
of ihjd may gradually come to realise that the escape of a
few malcontents to the refuge of Iraq is & max ter not attended
with sufficiently serious consequences to disturb his peace of