'File 2/2 III Kuwait-Iraq Smuggling.' [‎211r] (426/538)

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confcsged to having shared, that the proposals which had been put
forward by the advisers to the Iraqi Government, though possibly
reasonable from the purely technical pointof view, were in fact
very drastic and were not such as could be put to the Shaikh with any
great hope of free acceptance by him. I would, I said, go even
further. These proposals might, indeed, be represented as being
a cloak: for aggressive political designs on the part of Iraq which
would be wholly incompatible with the sovereignty of Kuwait, the
infringement of which His Majesty’s Government could clearly net
admit. Very real apprehensions had been felt on this score which
it would be difficult to dispel, and I should have to have proof
of Iraq’s good intentions before 1 could suggest to His Majesty’s
Government any deviation from the path w r hich they considered it «
feasible to follow*
4. In reply, Uuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. asked me t o reflect on the events of the
past three years. I could make enquiries where I would in Iraq.
I would find no hostility whatever towards the Shaikh or his people*
On-the contrary, he was a brother Prab, with whom Iraq wished to live
in harmony and friendly co-operation. I might rest assured that
Iraq had no political designs on the Shaikhdom. The Iraqi Government
fully realised the Shaikh’s defficulties and had no wish to force him
into a corne^r. It was for this reason that$i 4in spite of many
rebuffs, they had persisted for two years in Jo&king friendly approach-
i
es to him with a view to deal, at the centre, with what amounted to an
intolerable abuse, rather than to apply external palliatives or to
indulge in unilateral repressive measures. But the method of direct
approach had failed and they had appealed to His Majesty’s Government
t'
both as their ally and as the Shaikhs protector, to use their
influence with him in the|interests of good neighbourly relations.
No one regretted more than he the occasions on which His Majesty’s
Embassy had had to proteet against incidents in which Kuwaitis had
lost their lives. He asked me t o believe that these were sporadic
events incidental to the existing situation along the land and water
frontier^ and that they were no indication whatever of the policy of
the