File 13/5 'Foreign Consular representation in Kuwait (and Persian Gulf)' [‎54r] (107/136)

1 BLITZ 1
AUGUST 13
n
"YOU*RE MEMBERS OF A VERY DIRTY RACE l"
KUWAIT OIL FIELDS - HELL HOLE
FOR INDIAN EMPLOYEES.
to
Under-Paid- Ill - fed and Insulted 1 —
WHITE BOSSES
In the vast, grim, burning of Arabia, the West struck
oil, and today Dahran in Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, a post of
great strategic importance in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , are declared
to be the richest oil fields in the world.
According to a statement by Mr. A.W.Southfield, Assistant
Managing Director of the Kuwait Oil Co.Ltd., the hitherto-
marvelled giant Texas Oil fields ’are but a pigmy in comparison
to the Burgan Oil fields of Kuwait*. The oil fields in
Kuwait are controlled by the British and Americans, who have
a fifty-fifty share and is practically a new concern having started
actual operations only in earlu 1945 .
However, all this does not interest us - but we are certainly
interested in knowing what our Government intends doing for the
welfare and well-being of the thousands of our countrymen, the f )
flower of our intelligentia who are recruited in hundreds % 4
bvery ’day Xh”T^oraSy"’dH“ 1 tO't-/ Salaries and tempting promises.
First class technicians, stenographers and Clerks are k recruited
on one-fourth the salaries offered to the same category of
White Man, and perhaps no description of the colour prejudices
and colour bar that exists can be offered in adequate terms.
Everyone has heard of South Africa. Well, Kuwait is easily
worse and threatens to be worse still. We have no represen
tative of our Government there, and all disputes between the
management and the employees ]aave to be settled by His Britannic
Majesty’s Political A ent, and that worthy is an autocratic
imperialist who cares a jot for the under-dog and is nothing
but the Company’s man.
Let me enuraerate a few instances of the Management’s attitude
towards Indians as a whole and show in what hellish conditions
our men are carrying on there.
As if to show to the world that the most generous treatment is
being meeted out to Indians, a Clerk is recruited in Bombay on
Rs/210/- a month, rising to Rs.2A0/- in 3 years time, a Steno
grapher on Rs. 245/- a month rising to Rs*275/- again 0 in
3 years time and a first class technician on Rs.190/- a month
flat, for two years. Technicians are not graded, with the result
a Diesel Mechanic or an electrician draws the same salary as a Mason
Carpenter ±03CKX±fe3a:isaxiE:csxix or even a Dhobyi The same class of
Englishmen, who have lesser abilities thaim the Indian Clerk
is paid £45 a month to start with and can go upto £90 in three years.
Both Indians and Englishmen, with the exception of the Indian
technicians get free food and free quarters. The Indian technicians
The type of food and quarters given to the Indians compared with those
fiven to the European, has to be seen to be believed. The I n dian food
was so terrible that, early in April 1943, the Indian Clerks went on
a complete strike. The Management of the Mess was then handed over to
them, and now the situation has partially improved though no butter, bacon,
ham, or fruit such as the white man enjoys, are h issued to them.
.get 50 percent allowance in lieu of food
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