Coll 30/82 'Import duties charged by Sheikh of Koweit on goods arriving by sea.' [‎26r] (53/124)

26
Confidential
D.O.No.73.
My dear Bradshaw,
Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Kuwait.
Dated the 25th May,
3611
T nil you please refer to your D.O.Mo.1006 _d ated^ ifeth
19. . regarding the }?_ tax on imports recently imposed by
His Excellency the Shaikh.
as a result of a talk, I had with His Excellency this
morning (25th May 1931) on the subject, I do not think the new
import tax infringes the 1907 agreement for reasons given below,
and I feel certain the Shaikh would never have moved in the
matter had he thought that it did.
3. The Shaikh was of course quite aware of the wording
° f Treaty and paragraph 10, even though to refresh his memory
I showed him the English and Arabic version.
' 6 Place, the Shaikh pointed out that the
wording of the treaty, as far as he understood it forbade him to
raise the duty on goods exported from or imported into Kuwait by
British subjects including British Indians. But that he was free
to make an increase in the case of his own subjects should the
state finances render this necessary, with this view I concur.
: • Second ly the Shaikh assured me that although there were
about a dozen Indians all told making a living in Kuwait, only one
soda-water manufacturer^ imported anything into Kuwait, and very
occasionally an Indian who runs a flour mill here. The others were
all people of the barber, oculist and durssi type who imported or
exported nothing. In spite of this however he the Shaikh had passed
orders to the Director of Customs, that the extra tax was in no
I case t0 be levied from British subjects. Re had done this the day
the new tax was inaugurated, though he had not thought it worth
mentioning to me.
Captain J.R.L. Bradshaw,
Secretary to the Hon r ble the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency.
in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Bushire.
6. /