'XXII/17 Boundary between Koweit & Katif Territory' [‎9v] (20/78)

Foreign Office to 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. , dated 16th March
Ip'i, received under Foreign Department endorse
ment No. 1159-E.A . dated 21st Juneipii (enclo
sure 10).
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. that the Shaikh’s claims cannot be sustained so far south as Musal-
lamiyah Bay. I do not know precisely on
what evidence or absence of evidence that
decision is based, but I realise that it may
not be possible at this stage to consider the
inclusion of that feature.
5. The next point after Anta’a mentioned by Captain Shakespear is A 1
Safah. In a country where water is a precious commodity, to be found only at
certain spots, often many miles distant from each other, the inclusion of such
wells within the boundaries of a principality is of the greatest importance, and
as these wells appear, from Captain Shakespear’s report, to be used exclusively
by the tribes under Shaikh Mubarak’s control and to have at no time been touched
by Turkish influence, there seems every ground to include Safah within the prin
cipality.
6. We next come to Hafar. The strategic importance to the Shaikh of
Kuwait of this point will be apparent from a glance at the map. It is a half-way
house to Buraidah, Riyadh and Hail, and has a constant supply of water. It is
a well known outpost, and its possession by Shaikh Mubarak a id the tribes under
his control never seems to have been serious^ questioned. During the troubles
that took place in 1901, he used the place as a rallying point for his forces and
claimed it as in his territory, and was greatly incensed with Bin Rashid, who had
Resident to Foreign, No. 14, dated 26th January camped there for a time and consumed the
1901. pastures of Shaikh Mubarak’s tribes. The
latter laid a formal complaint before the Resident of the action of Bin Rashid i i
Telegram, Resident to Foreign, dated 2nd Nov* letter dated 22 nd October 1931, an
ember 1901 : - extract from which is quoted in the margin.
"Bin Rashid is at Hafar, which is distant3 The statement regarding Hafar was
days’ Journey from Kuwait; our own cattle and , , • ,,1 • •__.*
those f ou tribesmen are prevented by him f om repeated incidentally m 3. communication
grazing; we have cons-quentiv suffered great Iosj. from the Shaikh to the Resident dated
..... We, as directed by you, are quite in our own , . ,
country and are uc’er the shadow of y -ur protec- I y tn INOVemDer IQOI.
tion. It is ther fore m cessary that Bin Ra hid
should be made to quit these places which are in
out boundaries.
7. From Hafar the boundary line assigned to the Kuwait district alike by
Mr. Lorimer and Captain Shakespear is the Batin, a broad low depression in the
See Mr. Lorimer’3 Gazetteer, Volume 11, page desert, in which water can generally be
a81 - found at no great depth, and which contains
excellent grazing. Beyond it stretches desert, almost uninhabited and quite
unfertile. The Batin is a well known and well marked boundary and a tract o£
great value to Bedouins. There seems no reason to think that it has been
inhabited, except spasmodically, by tribes other than those under the influence
of the Shaikh of Kuwait,
8. It may be parenthetically remarked here that whereas Mr. Lorimer had
to rely upon the word of the Shaikh for his description of the boundary to the
westward, it has now been personally examined by Major Knox and Captain
Shakespear, with the results mentioned above, which generally speaking tend to
confirm the Shaikh’s claims.
9. The position of the northern boundary alone has been subjected in the
past to close examination. Captain Shakespear makes the well-marked Ar
Ratq Ridge the north-western corner of the principality ; the point seems a
suitable one for the purpose and will, I trust, be adopted. Thence it has been
held to run through Jabal Sanam, another prominent point, to the sea immediately
south of Umm Kasr.
10. The Shaikh’s claims to Safwan are, I think a good deal stronger than
has generally been thought, and might have been supported with good reason,
but it seems probable that as regaids this point we are committed vts d vis the
Porte to recognise it as beyond the limits of Kuwait; the Shaikh's influence^
however, is without doubt unquestioned up to the walls of the fort at Safwan and
this fact should receive recognition when the boundary is fixed. Mr. J. C. Gaskin
in his repoit of bth September 1897 gives Safwan as the northern boundary
of the principality and it has always been a camping ground of his tribes. His