"ملف 53/32 III (D 53) مسائل متنوعة خاصة بالكويت" [و‎‎٢‎١‎٧] (٤٨٦/٤٤٢)

Letter from thi--Hon'ble the Polmcal Rest-
dekt in the Pr IISIAN Gulf, No. 21—S., D a TED
the 13th Dkcevber 1927.
T have th^ honour to forward for the inform
ation of the Government of India a copy of a
n t^ on the Principality of Kuwait at the end
of the yt'ar 10:i7, which I had instructed Major
J. C. More, D S. O., the Political Agent, to
draw up. The details o' the tribes make clear
the situation with Ibn Sa^ud on the ^ Iraq
frontier.
The principality of Kuwait is an independent
Arab state under a virtual British Protection.
It has a distinctive flag' of its own: red, with
the word "Kuwait 1 " in Ar.bic chiracters in
white across it.
Boundaries :—The question of the status and
territory of the Shaikh of Kuwait was the sub
ject of negotiations between His Majesty's
Government and the Sublime Porte in 1913,* as
a result of which the Anglo-Turkish Agreement
of i9th July 1918,t was signed—but never rati
fied. B v this agre mpnt the autonomy of the
Shaikh of Kuwait was recognised in an a^ea,
the boundary of wliich formed a fle ni-eircle with
the t wn of Kuwait as centre and the Khaur
az-Zubair on its radius to the north and Qurain
to the south, together with the Islands of
Warbah, Bubiyan, Maskan Failakah, ' Auhah,
Kubbar, Qaru, Maqta' and Umm al-Maradim,
and their adjacent islets. It was further recog
nised that the Shaikh of Kuwait was the Tribal
over-lord, and entitled to levy tribute, within
a larger area, the boundary of which started
from the south side of the Khaur az-Zubair at
its junction with the Khaur J Abdullah and
passed just to the south of Umm Qusr, Safwan
and Jabal Sanam and on to the Batin ; it then
turned south-west and followed the Batin to
Hafar al-Hatin; it then turned south-east, and
included the wells of Safah, Qi'rah, flabah and
Wabrah, and the village of Anta^, and joined
the sea at Jabal Mani f ah. This Angl i-Turkish
Agreement, however, as stated above was never
raiificd.
During the rule ■ f Shaikh Salim, the ques
tion of the boundary between his territory and that
of Ibn Sa'ud became very acute, and resulted
in the surprise and defeat of the Kuwait tribes
men at Hamdh near Jar yah, J or Qirvah as it
should really be pronounced, in April 1920, and
the battle of Jahrah in Oct ber of the same year.
The question first arose in January 1919, when
Shaikh Salim wanted to build a fort at Dauhat
Balbul, just north of Jabal Manifah, to which
Ibn Sa'ad objected, and cl limed that it was
w r ithin his territory. Nothing happened until
April 192ii, when Ibu Shuqair started to build
the Ikhwan village of Jaryah, but from then
onwards the n-lations between Shaikh Salim and
♦ Secret External, December 1913, Nos. 1—245,
t Ihid.
^Enclosure to Serial No. 2 in File £87--X of 1923.
Ibn iSa'ud went from bad to worse. During
the summer o 1920, both parties applied for
British arbitration, and both M'ere asked to state
exactly what territory they claimed. Ibn Sa ; ud*
replied that he cl; im'pd the whole country up to
the walls of Kuw-iit; and Shaikh Salim claimed
a fr ntier similar to the < uter line of the Anglo-
Turkish Agreement. Tie High Commisfioner
for Iraq then invited Ibn Sa'ud to Basrah
with a view tos<ttling the dispute, but Ibn Sa'ud
replied that he was ui.ai le to come at the time.
In January 1921, the Shaikh of Muhamirarah
offered to send his son Shaikh Cl asib, accom
panied by Shaikh Ahmad al-Jab r _of Kuwait,
to Najd, to try and arrange a truce between Ibn
Sa ud and Si aikh Salim. His offer was accept
ed, and the mission left for Bahrain en route for
Najd in February, and reached Ibn Sa^ud's camp
to the north ot Kiyadh en the 2nd Mar* h. Two
days later the news of Shaikh Salim's death
reached them, and Ibn Sa'udf at once said that
there was no longer any quarrel to settle, or any
need for a boundary between his territory and
that of Kuwait. Ibn Sa ud liad+ alreidy been
told that His Majesty's Governm* nt recognised
the territorv within the inner boundary of the
Ang'o-Turkish Agreement as definitely belonging
to Kuwait. Nothing more happened regarding
the frontier until November 1922,§ when at a
Conferem e held at ' Uqair between Sir Percy
Cox and Ibn Sa'ud, at which the Political Agent
was also present, the question of a frontier bet
ween Kuwait and Najd came up for discussion.
It was recognised atonce that the power of Ibn
Subah (to give the Shaikh of Kuwait his desert
title) was much less in the desert than it had
been wh^n the Anglo-Turkish Agreement was
drawn up, and an agreement was eventually
arrived at by which the frontier starts from
the junction of the Wadi al-'Aujah with the
Batin on the west. From this point, leaving
Riqa^i to Xajd, it runs in a straight line to the
junction of the 29th parallel of latitude with the
red semi-circle on the map attached to the draft
Anglo-Turkish Agreement, || and then follows the
red semi-circle to the sea. The above forms the
southern boundary of the recognized tenito y of
Kuwait, but the tract f country bounded on the
north by the above Ime, on the west by the
Shaqq, on the east by the sea, and on the south
by a straight line running eastwards from the
Shaqq in the west, through 'A in al- 'Abd, to the
sea north of Ras al-Mish'a^, is recognized as
common to the two states of Najd and Kuwait,
in which both enjoy eq al rights. In April 1928$
the Shaikh of Kuwait, was informed that His
Majesty's Government recognized the other
frontiers claimed by him. The frontiers of
Kuwait are accordingly as shown on the attached
map.
♦ Serial No. 2 in File No. 387-X—23.
t Ibid, Enclosure 2 to Serial ^o. 16.
+ Ihid, Enclosure 1 to Serial No. 16.
§ Ibid, Serial No. 20 and Enclosure to Serial No. 21.
|| S. E., December 1913, Nos. 1—24; Enclo to Pro.
No. 134.
f Serial Xo. 31 in file No. 387-X-23.