'Military Report on the Arabian Shores of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Bahrein, Hasa, Qatar, Trucial Oman and Oman' [‎2] (16/226)

chap. i. history kuwait.
Shammar, and annex their territories in 1906 Tim e.iW
■of^Kuwnlt 1 att i tU f T 0f Ibn Saud towards the 'ruling fam Iv
^ h,m °" en to the <*"«• «f /ross in-
RoJvq ' 0 ! 6 • 18 ? l intercourse between the British
to the f Gu,f a " d the Sheikh * ^ Kuwait appears
excellent mfre <l uent > though personal relations were
Kuwait was nominally, until about 30 years ago in
cluded m the Ottoman province of Basra, but the Sheikh
TvS n coniplet ® la . eal autonomy in his own area.
u oi 1 " , 18 , G ? vernme n fc insisted on dealing directly with
the Sheikh when the Baghdad Railway question began
<md supported him against the Turks with whom Sheikh
Mubarak repudiated all relatiofis in 1914.
O S,ieikh Mubarak signed an agreement with the
British Government, binding himself and his successors not
to hand over any part of his territory to foreigners with
out the consent of the British Government. Four years
later he accepted a British 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. at his court.
He subsequently regarded himself as under British pro
tection and made important and exclusive concessions to
ois.
3. Ttecent History. —On the outbreak of war in 1914,
the Sheikh of Kuwait made a declaration of loyalty and
placed his " efforts, his men and his ships at the disposal
of the Government of Great Britain ", offering at the same
time to eject the Turkish garrison from the Islands at the
mouth of the Shatt-al-Arab. The termination of the war
necessitated a decision as to the status of Kuwait, which
EL M.'s Government had promised in November 1914 to
recognize as an independent principality under British
protection. As a reward for having entered the war on
our side, the Shaikh was also exempted in perpetuity from
paying taxes on his date gardens in Iraq.
The outstanding feature of the post-war history of
Kuwait has been the strained relations with Ibn Saud.
Owing to the non-ratification of the Anglo-Turkish conven
tion of 1913, the boundaries of Kuwait, which had been
defined in that convention, remained in a fluid state at
the end of the war, and it was not nntil 1922 that an
agreement was reached. Under this agreement Kuwait
tost two-thirds of her territory.