‘1/1 Volume II Koweit Saudi relations’ [‎80r] (168/534)

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fellow iirab rulers, and the outside world in general. The de
claration of such a protectorate would likewise alarm the
other Shaikhs on the xirab Coast of the Gulf. It might also in
volve His Majesty’s Government in a measure of interference in the
internal affairs of Kuwait which can at present be avoided. The
question of slavery in Kuwait, for example, as part of the Slavery
question in the Gulf generally, will doubtless be raised in the
future by the recently established Permanent Slavery Committee of
the League of Nations, and as we have no Slave Agreement with the
Huler, such as exists with the other Arab rulers by which the local
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. can manumit slaves, the Kuwait aspect of this
problem offers special difficulties. So long as Kuwait remains
independent His Majesty’s Government’s respondibility in the
matter is presumably limited to representation and persuasions to
•the Shaikh. In the event, however, of a British protectorate
being declared over the Shaikhdom, His Majesty’s Government might
possibly be committed to more drastic action. Finally it is not
a,
improbably, though this is a matter outside my sphere, that the
declaration of a Kuwait protectorate might lead to somewhat awk
ward accusations from other governments of ’land grabbing’ and
the like, with which we have been familiar enough in the past
with regard to other areas.
4. An examination of the alternative policy (b) shows that,
unsatisfactory as our present/treaty relationship with the Shaikh
may be, (as was pointed out at the meeting), we have a certain
control over the Ruler,( see India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Lote r Obligations of
His Majesty’s Government toward-s the Shaikh of Kuwait), and
where our Agreements show gaps, these can to a large extent be
filled up. Thus control of awSl/tion through Kuwait, whether
military or civil, would be in the hands of His Majesty’s govern
ment under the proposed Air xigreement (vide correspondence ending
■fljrj_th Government of India, foreign and Political uepa.i tment _jX .ress
letter No. ? . 364-11/33, dated the 21st August 1933, to TT is Majesty’s
Secretary of State for India) would place jurisdiction over non-
Moslem foreigners in Kuwait in the hands of the lolitical Ageni*
5. A third -gap’ is the habit of direct correspondence