'File 5/2 IV Kuwait Neutral Zone' [‎84r] (167/598)

SECRET
X
Ext. 2801/1943.
'v
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. ,
Whitehall, S. d .1.
^4 May, 1943.
Dear Bridgeman,
I promised to let you know what passed at
my interview with Rhoades and Angus of the Eastern
Gulf Oil Company.
2. Rhoades emphasised at the outset that his
proposed visit to Koweit had other objects besides that of
negotiating with the Sheikh about the neutral zone. His
C .vpany 1 s sulphur concession in Koweit obliged them to
undertake a certain amount of drilling before December 1944,
and he wished to make arrangements for this on the spot.
He did not know how the Sheikh had heard that he wished in
addition to discuss the neutral zone, but he had no desire
to make a secret of his intentions in this respect.
3. I said that the Sheikh had not got his
information from us or from the local Political .authorities
He had told the latter that he would not discuss the
question of the neutral zone with anyone, and they had
passed this on to us with the suggestion that we should
inform Rhoades accordingly. We would not be prepared to
put pressure on the Sheikh in a matter of this kind, or
even attempt to influence him one way or another. Rhoades
said that he appreciated this and did not.suspect the
Political authorities of having influenced the Sheikh’s
present attitude. He agreed with me that the Sheikh had,
for reasons of his own, maintained this attitude over a
number of years, and that he had refused to depart from it
qj the time of his (Rhoades’) visit to 'Koweit in 1940.
4 . I felt bound to tell Rhoades that Petroleum
Concessions Ltd. had also heard - but not frqm us - of his
proposed visit to Koweit, and had said that if he was
going/
The Hon. M.R. Bridgeman,
Ministry of Fuel and Power,
(Petroleum Division)
Dean Stanley Street, S.vvM. *