'File 53/52 I (D 161) Kuwait Succession' [‎81r] (170/282)

nn?T?IDEHTIAL » No. /SC ' C
60
Politieai Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ,Kuwait, ^\)
19th September 1918, w
To
The GlYil G om I ssloner,
Baghdad.
MBMOHMBUM.
Before prooeedin^ on leare I venture to suMit for
reoord the following information whi«h,qmlte apart frora the
raiding and bioslcade questions, shows how unsatisfactory and
unsuitable Shaikh Salia is as a ruler*
Firstly. At rarious times I have heard that the
Persiam Community in Kuwait are desirous of plaoing them
selves under British p^oteetion and on two oeeasions I have
been definitely asked if thus eould not be done* On the
second oeeasion my questioner,the leading Persian merchant
here, said that in the time of Shaikhs Mubarak and Jabir the
Persians always got impartial treatment and Justice and that
no difference was made between Sunni and Shi 1 ah in that res-
peot,while the policy of the present Shaikh was the reverse:
he warmly eulogised our protection of Persians in Bahrain
and begged that the community here mi^ht be placed on a simil
ar footing. I explained to him that the case of Bahrain was
different as there wch§d an agreement with the Shaikh as re-
gards foreigners and that I could offer him no hope in that
direction. He persisted in his request,asking as a concrete
case what action,if any,they could hope for from us if one of
their number was Imprisoned unjustly or murdered,to which I
replied that,while they were,of course,entirely subject to
the Ruler of the country in which they saw fit to reside,the
\ Political A^ent w&uld no doubt be able to afford them his ^ood
offices in case of any serious miscarriage of Justice or out
rage.
Secondly. There seems to be widespread dissatisfaction with
Shaikh Salinas methods of Oovernment. I attach a note by Lieu^
Me CoHum on he opinions advanced by a leading Arab merchant
of Kuwait in p recent conversation: while these opinions are