مجموعة ٣٠/ ٢٢٤ "ترتيبات العملة في المشيخات العربية في الخليج الفارسي." [ظ‎‎٣‎٦] (١٥٧/٨٠)

relieve the Political Agent of duties for which ne is inadequately
staffed. His colleagues of both banka in -shreln, however, do
not a {tree with his view - on the contrary they would not care
to accept the responsibilities as would fall to them if Kxchange
Control administration was traneferred to the banks. There is
of course no question of the political hesi-ient or aysi.lf
suasorting such a view ae we recognise that ultimate responsibility
(apart from some delegated duties to the bents; must rest with
the author!tie b«
(f) In concluding this paragraph on the general position
of Exchange Control in the Sheikhdom* of Kuwait and Bahrein, I
would like to record my impression thst the managers of the
Inr^rial Benk of Iran in Kuwait and oahrein and of the Eastern
bunk, sahrein, respectively, are vey Bxchan^ e Control conscious
and are playing the game in an admirable way. The authorities
at home may reat assured that the hankers in the Gulf, so far ae
cny ohservations went in the short time I ^as there, are staunch
in their application of the rules laid dov/n, and iurtneraore
are rendering willing and valuable service to the Political
Keeident and the political Agents, who I feel sure would be the
first to agree with what has just been stated.
(Ill) (a> There is no doubt that there has been and, probably
still is a large volume of illicit trade between Kuwait and
Basra. Some laonths ago the Iraq Government issued an order
permitting the issue of licences covering the import of any
conmiodity on the condition that the importer found the foreign
exchange required# The Basra merchants thereupon sought
foreign exctiange JUicluding sterling. It is estimated that
something between £ 500,000 and £1 million of goods of various
kinds hare been obtained through Kuwait during 1 C J49. At first the
goods were off-loaded at Kuwait and Oustom Duty (&») was paid.*
They were than reconsigned to >a«ra. In course of time this
method became too expensive and while goods were still consigned
to Kuwait they were not off-loaded. The Custom Duty, however,
was paid. Still later, .goods were sent direct to nera on
credits opened by Kuwait. Much of this traffic was sterling
area goods, but some was of European origin, exchange for which
having been obtai«*ed on letters of recommendation issued by the
Political Agent, Kuwait, (^ee para. XI(a) above.) recently
the Iraq Government has suspended the practice of issuing .
licences without exchange except to cover luxuries. The
practice now is, where the Government issues import licences,
and they do so only for essentials, the Government provides
foreign exchange. When the Iraq Goveramtjnt xirst permitted
imports without exchange sterling went to a premium of as much
as 15^» in terms of Iraqi dinars. It has since fallen back to
a premium of about mpcrts via Kuwait continue on expedite
opened before the recent change
(b) , It was difficult to discover how Iraq obtained
sterling for thi? traffic. As far as I have been able to
discover there are four elements.
. i
1. Exports of fodder and fr^ah vegetables from Iraq
to Kuwait,
2 . bale of sterling held by residents of Iiviq attracted
by the high premium.
* I was Informed that x'^oceeds from Custom Dues are divided as
followss- Sheikh kfc
Smaller Sheikha 1
Customs Officials i
Hoads & public ^orks ?
TR
Ttm Sheikh of Kuwait very often attends in person at the Customs
House.