"ملف ٥/٤ دولة الكويت: شيخ الكويت، مكانته وطرق تحيته" [و‎‎٥‎٥] (٣٧٠/١٠٩)

Confidential
The Honourable the Political Resident.
It may be worth while to put in writing the suggestion
I mentioned this morning about the status of the Shaikhs of
Kuwait end Bahrain, although it is entirely personal to
myself and I have not had occesion to speak 0 n the subject
to the Foreign Office. Other views may possibly be held
there but I think they would in the main be guided by the
opinion of the India Office and Government of India.
We have had increasing reasons to emphasise vis-a-vis
I bn Saud the importance which we attach to the Eastern
Arabian Shaikhs and especially the Shaikhs of Kuwait and
Bahrain as independent rulers bound to us by special ties.
It has for some time seemed to me unfortunate that in
correspondence with the Saudi Government I should have to
refer to these two Shaikhs as f His Excellency 1 merely using
a title which normally applies to subordinate persons and in
Eastern usage to persons of quite small account. My
suggestion is that His Majesty’s Government should in some
appropriate way confer on them the official status of "His
Highness", the Arabic equivalent of which would be ” Soma"
i.e. the title borne by the Amir of Trans Jordan and,
understand the Sultan of Muscat.
I approach the subject from one point of view only
and there may be objections unknown to me, from other points
of view. I may, however, put forward two considerations,
which might make the suggestion acceptable at the present
time j-
(a) The King is conferring the G.C.B. on Ibn Saud
and I am taking the Insignia to Riyadh. I think it would
be inappropriate to confer honours of the same kind on the
two Shaikhs at the present juncture but an improvement of
their status in the way suggested above would mark the fact
that attentions to Ibn Saud (which I ay self have advocated)
do not mean that we undervalue other rulers with whom we
have special relations and who have deserved well of His
Majesty’s Government.
(b) The end of Jubilee Year would be a by no means
inappropriate time to dignify the two Shaikhs in the manner
suggest ed.
sd. ANDREW HYAH.
Bahrain,
November 19 th, 1935