File 10/12 Desert news: defeat of Ikhwan by Ibn Sa`ud (Battle of Sibilla, 1929); operations against rebels [‎182r] (370/382)

Telegram (P),
From Political, Kuwait. •
To Hi^hcoma, Bagdad; repeated to Bushire.
t 60 o
Dated Hth March 19d9«,
Your tele^am 1*0.29-5» I think the Shaikh of Kuwait certainlj
iti trying to prevent his people from ueoomin^ involved in a
quarrel with the Mutair by allowing the latter to p : urchase
supplies here, etc*, This desire of his may even have influ
enced him in deciding* that the raiders were too strong to
i
take action against when I suggested to him on 3rd March that
he might send out a force after them In cars like he did last
winter.
To allow the 1 Uraibdar to Join in with the Mutalr in raiding
an 'Iraq tribe, or to retain plunder taken in such a raid,
would of course be a very different matter, and could not be
tolerated if true,, Personally, however, I do not believe the
accusation. I have a very high opinion of Glubb’s ability,
but he is not infallible, and it -would really be strange if
there were not rumours of this sort about at tne present ti.i€
when 1 Iraq shepherd tribes are naturally most suspicious of
anvone of the Majd type, to which tne Uraibdar Delong. More
over there are of course people in Iraq who wou3.d like to
see Kuwait made a part of ’Iraq, and it is not inconceivable
such persons would fan any such anti-Kuwait rumours for use
as propaganda, I do not in any way look on the 'Uraibdar as
paragons and I realize that the idea of a raid might well
appeal to some of them, as to any other Bedouins, but the
Shaikh would never have approved, and they ooula hardly have
hoped to take part in the raid without his knowing - par
ticularly in oxie so close to the town.
I have already* discussed the question with the Shaikh, he
ridicules the idea of any of the 'Uraibdar having taken pnrt
in the raid, and says that had they done so he would certain
lr fcave learnt the fact, and *oulci have ounished .them most
drastically. He denies that his tribes have any Oi the
plunder