"ملف ٢/ ٢ VI التهريب بين الكويت والعراق" [و‎‎١‎٢‎٩] (٣٨٦/٢٦٨)

they were not prepared to do anything at all. The Sheikh was
no doubt within his legal rights in refusing to co-operate
over the suppression of smuggling, but he might have to pay
heavily for insisting on those rights.
12. Sir !.1'ovvle emphasised the importance of not exercising
any pressure on the Sheikh. The position of His Majesty^
Government would become impossible if they tried to oblige him to
follow some course of action, and he were to refuse to do so. It
was not their policy to put pressure of this kind on the Persian
Gulf lulers under their protection. Mr.Kendel reminded the meeting
that His Majesty’s Government had not so long ago deposed the
reigning Sheikh of Bahrein; but Sir T. Powle regarded this case as
not constituting a valid parallel. He entirely agreed however
that it would be reasonable to put clearly before the Sheikh the
choice of evils with which he was faced, provided he was allowed
to choose freely between them.
IS. After considerable further discussion, it was
eventually agreed (a) that there would be no advantage to be gained
ih asking the Iraqi Government to agree either to the demarcation of
the Iraqi-, oweit frontier or to the establishment of a standing
frontier commission at this stage, since they would inevitably
refuse both suggestions; (b) that Hie Majesty’s Ambassador should,
however, on his return to Bagdad ascertain the precise intentions of
the Iraqi Government in regard to the proposed blockade, and inform
His Majesty’s Government and the Political Resident in detail of
the particular form that that blockade was likely to take; (c) that
the Sheikh of Koweit should then be warned in the clearest terms
of the measures the Iraqi Government contemplated taking in order
to put an end to the smuggling by instituting a blockade, and that
every effort should be made to impress upon him the extremely
inconvenient/