IOR/R/15/1/595

The volume contains correspondence relating to the adjournment, second phase, and collapse of the Kuwait Conference. The correspondence is between the Political Residency at Bushire, the Political Agencies at Kuwait and Bahrain, the High Commissioners in Baghdad and Jerusalem, the Colonial Office in London, the British Agency at Jeddah, the Government of India, Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, ruler of Kuwait, Ibn Sa'ud, Sultan of Najd, King Faisal of Iraq, and Amir Abdullah of Transjordan.

The main aim of the conference was to settle issues of border delineation between Najd, Transjordan, the Hejaz, and Iraq. Other issues of negotiation were the return of Shammar refugees to Najd from Iraq and compensation for past raids. Much of the correspondence deals with this. The discussion focuses around the status of places that there is most disagreement on: Wadi Sirhan (Jauf [Jawf], Kaf [Kāf]), Akaba [al-‘Aqaba], Maan [Ma‘ān], and the Hejaz frontier (Khurma, Turbah, Khaybar). Other more practical issues are discussed, such as travel arrangements and the identity of attendees, including Ibn Sa‘ud's decision not to send one of his son's as delegate which led to King Hussein withdrawing his own representative.

Other subjects covered by the volume are:

• a large raid by the Ikhwan on Iraqi shepherd tribes that effectively ended the conference;
• the presentation by the British of a silver plate to Sheikh Ahmed to thank him for his hospitality;
• the official Najd government publication of a 'green book' on the conference.

Notable within the volume are Stuart Knox's notes and minutes on the numerous sittings of the conference: folios 1D-37, 57-90, 120-29, 252-63, 265-71, 274-80.