IOR/R/15/1/531

This file contains correspondence regarding alleged smuggling activities from Kuwait into Iraq. Primarily, the file contains internal correspondence between British officials but it also includes correspondence between British officials (primarily Harold Richard Patrick Dickson, the British Political Agent in Kuwait) and Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ, the ruler of Kuwait as well as correspondence between British officials and the Government of Iraq.

The majority of the correspondence discusses two incidents, in April and October 1933 respectively, in which Iraqi Customs Authorities attacked Kuwaiti sailing vessels, both of the incidents resulted in the death and injury of Kuwaiti subjects.

The file contains the following maps:

• Rough sketch of Kuwait-Iraq maritime frontier to illustrate the October 1933 incident (f 121)
• Two rough sketch maps showing Iraq's territorial water boundary (f 148 + f 149)
• Two rough sketch maps showing the official frontier lines of Kuwait (f 312 + f 320A)
• Copy of a tracing of Warba Island and its vicinity made by HMS Sphynx in 1903 (f 321).

The file contains a detailed note entitled 'On the contraband problem of Iraq with her neighbours, and in particular how it affects Kuwait' (ff 45-55) and a report on the supply of drinking water in Kuwait (ff 140-148) both of which were written by Dickson, the Political Agent in Kuwait.