File 13/11 'Registration of Foreigners - Kuwait' [‎16r] (31/72)

No.C/67 (13/11).
The Political agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ,
Kuwait,
M,' April, 1949.
Please refer to Oalloway's Saving No.C/63
(13/11) of the 3rd April, 1949.
2. I have been ^oirv; into the administration
. t i nave oeen i-nou unc
of the passport section of this office in connection with
K the registration of British Subjects under Part VI of tne
x Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. and other matters.
cc
70t
3. The number of British Protected Personsin
/ T Kuwait has risen from a mere 100 in 1944 to some 4400
^ c odd today. In addition to the passport work which
the presence of these persons involves (which induces
the issue of new passports and making the necessary
enquiries before they are issued in doubtlul cases), we
have a Kood deal to do in connection with the passports
of forei^iers and of Kuwait Subjects. To do all oi tnis there
is one locally recruited Arab cierk. He has done his oest
and is, I consider, to be congratulated on wnat he nas
manag ed to do; but he is clearly npt fitted by education
or background to run a passport office at the standard of
efficiency expected by the Foreign Office, -^nd, iiicieed,
I find that he lias not fully digested or understood all
the circulars that are received, and the necessary files
have not been properly maintained. Nor is he qualified to
receive in the way that they have a right to expect the
Kuropeans and Americans that frequent the passport olxice,
and as long as 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. is the only officer
here clearly he cannot receive them all himself, or,
' n indeed, invariably be in the office ./hen they call. I
understand that complaints were made by the British residents
to Major Tufton Beamish, M.P., when he came nere m hallo,/ay s
time about their reception by clerks in the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , and t.vice
recently the Consul-Creneral at Basra nas taken it
himself to draw our attention to mistakes maoe in tne
issue of British passports.
4 Now we are faced with resuming the registration
of some*4400 British Subjects under Part VI of the Order in
Council. This was done formerly but neglected in the last
three years. Each passport has to be stamped separately
and the Consular stamps have to be accounted for. We are
making a start again because our failure to do this work
led to serious political qonsequences — the Kuwait hpyern-
ment trying to rorestall us by the issue of tneir notification
regarding the registration of all persons who are not subjects
of the Shaikh —; but we cannot complete this task during tne
year without additional staff.
5. There still remains the supervision of Americans
and European foreigners. There are a number oitne latter
employed" by the Schlumberger Overseas S.a., a French enter
prise working for the Kuwait Oil Company, i/e snould not >
register their passports; but, for security reasons, it is
desirable that we should keep a record of particulars of
them/..
,E. Sir W.R. Hay, KCIE.,CSI.,
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. m the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Bahrain.