IOR/R/15/1/480

This file contains correspondence regarding relations between the British Government and Abdul Aziz ibn Abdulrahman ibn Faisal Al Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd (Ibn Saud)]. The correspondence also discusses political developments in Kuwait including the deaths of Shaikh Mubarak Al Sabah (f 76) and Shaikh Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ (f 138). Other regional rulers including Khaz'al Al Ka'bi, the Shaikh of Mohammerah and Shaikh Ḥamadān bin Zāyid Āl Nahyān, the ruler of Abu Dhabi are also discussed in the correspondence.

The file contains a detailed letter (ff 2-10) to Major Percy Cox, British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, from Captain William Shakespear, former Political Agent in Kuwait (and then acting as Political Officer on Special Duty). The letter discusses Captain Shakespear's recent visit to Ibn Saud and outlines his attitude towards the British Government and lists the advantages of making Ibn Saud "a British vassal for good". The death of Captain Shakespear at the Battle of Jarrab in January 1915 is reported in the file on folio 26.

The file contains correspondence between Major Cox and Ibn Saud regarding the development of his relationship with the British Government and Ibn Saud's attitude towards the Ottoman Empire and Germany. The file contains a précis regarding relations of the British Government with Ibn Saud from January 1917. The précis was prepared for the Director of the British Government's Arab Bureau in Cairo by the Bureau's Chief Political Officer in Iraq, it contains copies of a number of relevant letters and agreements between the British and Ibn Saud.