IOR/R/15/5

The Ottoman Government continued to complain to the British that the appointment of an Agent in the region was a breach of the status quo. The two countries engaged in protracted negotiations and reached the unratified Anglo-Turkish Agreement of 1913, which defined the status of Kuwait as an autonomous ‘caza’ of the Ottoman Empire, but which became a dead letter with the entry of Turkey into the First World War on the side of the Central Powers. The War then brought a change in Kuwait’s status, since the British Government promised independence to Shaikh Mubarak as well as to Ibn Sa'ud in return for their support against the Turks.

Hitherto, the Political Agent, Kuwait, had been responsible for most of his functions to the Political Resident at Bushire, though with greater freedom to report directly to the Foreign Office and Government of India Foreign Department on trade questions. With the outbreak of war, Kuwait was included in the area administered by Force D, the Indian Expeditionary Force, and after the appointment in 1914 of Sir Percy Cox as Chief Political Officer with the military expedition in Basra, the Political Agent, along with other Gulf posts, reported on political matters directly to him. Cox retained responsibility for the political work of the Agency after the occupation of Baghdad in his successive capacities as Civil Commissioner and High Commissioner, although the responsibility for the internal administration of the Agency remained with the Residency at Bushire. Among other duties, Cox was responsible for conducting British relations with Ibn Sa'ud, at a time when the latter had consolidated his authority in Central Arabia, and tribal attacks on Iraq and Kuwait began, as did the Saudi blockade of Kuwait. Despite attempts at re-division of responsibilities for Middle Eastern affairs, Cox retained control of the Agency's political work and of relations with Ibn Sa'ud, until his retirement in May 1923. After that date the Political Resident at Bushire became once more fully responsible for the supervision of the Kuwait Agency and remained so until the Foreign Office took over control of the Residency and its subordinate Agencies on 1 April 1948.

Over the course of time the Kuwait Agency had established many contacts with Iraq authorities, both British and Arab, and in the 1920s and 1930s it continued to correspond directly with them, a practice resented by both the Political Resident and the Iraqi Government. There was also friction between the Political Residency at Bushire and the British Embassy at Baghdad on the question of the Iraqi claim to Kuwait. From the 1920s the Political Agent became more involved in internal Kuwaiti affairs, but even so his workload was relatively light. An Assistant Surgeon had joined the Agency in 1904 and either he or the Head Clerk sometimes deputised for Political Agent in the latter’s absence if no ‘acting’ Agent had been appointed.