Ext 878/48 'Establishment of USA consulate at Kuwait' [‎8r] (15/34)

CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL -5-
fact of his residence in Basra instead of Kuwait. The increas
ing scope of American business activity in Kuwait makes it
imperative that the volume and quality of consular^ reporting
on the Kuwait district be improved.
F. Relations with American Companies and with Local
Officials:
The present practice of assigning to the Consul in Basra
the duty of maintaining contact with the representatives of
American companies in Kuwait and with local officials has
prevented the development of that intimate working relation
ship so essential to the American interests involved as well
as to the Governments of the United States and the United
Kingdom. A case in point is that of the dispute which has arisen
over the islands off the coast of Kuwait and the Kuwait
Neutral Zone, involving two American companies, the American
Independent Oil Company and the Gulf Oil Company which owns
half interest in the Kuwait Oil Company. The Department be
lieves that it would have greatly facilitated the satisfactory
settlement of this dispute had an American consular represen
tative been resident in Kuwait and working in close coopera-
tion with the parties in dispute as well as with the Political
Agent. However, it is also on matters of a more routine
nature which when added together form an even greater
fication for the establishment of a Consulate in Kuwait. The
day-to-day problems are many and growing and in the spirit
of the Anglo-American conversations on economic and cultural
cooperation in the Near East held in Washington in Owtober
1947 it is believed that an American consular officer will
be of great value in helping to work out the harmonious
development of our commercial relations in Kuwait, In the
course of executing his duties, the Consul will, of course,
have regard for the special treaty relationship existing
between the United Kingdom and the Shaikh of Kuwait.
In view of the foregoing, you should renew the Embassy^
previous request to the British Government for its acquiescence
in the establishment of an American consular office in Kuwait,
in discussing the subject with the Foreign Office, the Embassy
should convey the Department's view that the establishment of
an American Consulate in Kuwait would not adversely effect tne
existing British relations with Kuwait but on the contrary
would work to the long-range mutual advantage of the Lnited
States and the Wilted Kingdom. You may also point out that
requests from other states for the establishment of consulates
inVwait could still be refused on the just ground that they
lack tangible interests in Kuwait comparable to those of the
United States.
With reference to the Foreign Office's analogy between the
provision of consular facilities at Kuwait and Bahrein, the
Embassy should point out that the handling of our consular
^eds It Bahrein by the Consulate in Dhahran is %n inconven-
lent and unsatisfactory arrangement and one which we would not
llll to duplicate in Kuwait where the demand for American
consular services is greater and more pressing. ^