'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations' [‎196r] (397/540)

(t) That persons looted by Arabs at these wells always resort to Kuwait
for redress.
(i) All Arabs using these wells consider the Shaikh of Kuwait as the
responsible ruler of the immediately surrounding tract.
When the relatively short distances of these wells from Zobair and Basra is
compared with those from Kuwait, it will be conceded, I think, that without some
very good ground or reason resort would not be had to the Kuwait Shaikh for
redress. In the face of long existing traditions and facts of the above descrip
tion, which moreover are supported by the reports of our own officials since 1866,
it appears impossible to me to ignore the justice of the Shaikh's claim and he
will certainly be bitterly disappointed if his plaint is dismissed as not proved on
the objection that a Turkish post has existed (and that on sufferance) at the
spot for the past ten years.
Safisoan. —The above remarks apply with almost equal force to the case of
Safwan, but here, though the name does not appear so frequently in our own
officials ' reports, we have some cultivation and it may be possible to produce the
evidence of the actual cultivators. Mr. Lorimer (Gazetteer Volume II, page
1642) appears to take for granted that the village and cultivation have always
been within Turkish boundaries, a view which I have not found to be shared by
either desert or town Arabs. I was in the vicinity in March 1910 and again in
January 1911, when I passed the wells. Cultivation appeared to have ceased
and I am told by the Shaikh that this has come about through the exactions
and oppression of the soldiers quartered in the Turkish fort. The Shaikh agreed
readily to send to me for cross-examination any of the original cultivators if they
should happen to be in Kuwait and I hope to be able to forward their depositions
later. Most of the cultivators used (to go?) to Nejada, who had been settled at
Safwan from many years before As in the case of Umm Kasr his jurisdiction
over the wells is rendered void before the world by the presence of the Turkish
detachment, and it is to this presence, continued for ten years, that the Shaikh
takes objection.
Jahal Sanam lies a little to the south and west from Safwan {vide Lori-
mer's Gazetteer, Volume II, page 1642) and is claimed by the Shaikh as within
his northern boundary, running on westwards to the Ar-Ratk ridge where the
latter impinges on the northern end of the Batin depression-
The line from Umm Kasr to the Batin as described above is a natural one
favoured by the terrain ; wells on or near a boundary are always apples of discord
with Arab tribes, for whilst used freely by two contiguous tribes when at peace
they would certainly be claimed by both if any question of ownership arose, and
the very fact of such contention will often establish where a particular tribe s
boundary may be said actually to lie. In the present case the Dhafir and Munta-
fick tribes both occasionally claim Safwan wells and describe them as their south
ern boundary conterminous with Mubarak's. Bat as it is the As-Subah writ
which runs in their immediate vicinity, the balance of evidence favours-their in
clusion within Mubarakh's territory.
Al Batin is a very plainly marked natural feature running north-east and
south-west from the As-Ratk ridge to Al Hafar {vide Lorimer's Gazetteer,
Volume II, page 281) and has always been pointed out to my predecessor and
myself as the As-Subah boundary. It is habitually used for grazing by the
camels of Kuwait merchants during the spring and at other times, and depreda
tions committed therein and eastwards always become Mubarakh's concern in
obtaining redress or allocating punishment; west of the Batin is regarded as
Shammar and Dhafir territorry. One of the main caravan routes into the interior
from Kuwait strikes into the Batin at Rigai wells and the road thence lies in the
bottom of the depression.
Al Hafnr.~~hs far as these wells caravans from the east and north are
always considered to be under the Kuwait Shaikh s protection. As a further
instance of evidence of the kind mentioned above, it is interesting to note that
when Mubarakh is on good terms with the Shammar tribe this tribe uses the Hafar