المجموعة ٨٢/٣٠ "رسوم الاستيراد التي فرضها شيخ الكويت على البضائع القادمة عبر البحر." [و‎‎٢‎٧] (١٢٤/٥٥)

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the Shaikh wished to make it quite clear that
the levying of the new tax of originated from the Kuwait merchants
themselves, and was a sort of subscription to be taken from the
rich of the town, to ease the lot of the many poor who today were
finding it very hard to keep themselves alive, much less pay house
tax. m other words the -well to do- had come forward and offered
to bear the burden of the city House Tax, provided such house tax
was abolished, and they considered that the easiest way of bringing
this about was to ask the Shaikh to impose on themselves the
merchantile community the small additional burden of over and
above the reasonable import duty they already paid.
Fourthly, and this replies to the question raised in
your last paragraph. The Shaikh said that ever since he came to
the throne the import duty levied on his subjects, and everyone
else has been A%.
It used to be 10% in M ubarak*s and Jabir^s time, (except
on British subjects), but that Salim hoping to win the Kuwait
"ulema" favour (who all along had said that the ruler had no right
to take more than 2j$ by Sheria Law) reduced the import tax to 4 ^.
1 ^E urR was agreed to by the TT ulema" because the leading
merchants gave out that they would not accept in the interests of
their State a lesser reduction. All politics of course, they
having, as the Shaikh said, put the ulema up all along to work a
reduction from the hated 10%.
®• I hope what I have said above will show that no
infringement of the 1907 T
way intended.
Sd. H.R.P.Dickson.