IOR/R/15/5/74

This volume primarily concerns the preparation and submission of annual trade reports. Most of the volume consists of copies of trade reports for Kuwait (for each financial year from 1917-1918 up to and including 1923-1924), which are submitted by the Political Agent, Kuwait [Captain Daniel Vincent McCollum, succeeded by Major James Carmichael More]. Each report provides a summary of the trade for that year; some of the reports discuss in greater detail the increase and decrease in trade of specific goods. Other details mentioned include those relating to the geographical extent and population size of Kuwait, its currency, its weights and measures, its shipping and navigation, and its transport.

Each report also includes in its tables of statistics the corresponding figures (i.e. quantities and values of goods) for the two preceding financial years, as well as the countries from/to which the principal articles were imported/exported.

The reports are submitted to the Persian Gulf Political Residency, Bushire, for comments, before being submitted to the Residency again, as well as to the following: the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Department, Delhi; the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London; the Chief Collector of Customs in Sind, Karachi.

Also included are two letters (in Arabic) from the Ruler of Kuwait, Shaikh Ahmad al-Jabir as-Subah [Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ], to the Political Agent at Kuwait, plus the Agency's correspondence with both the Persian Gulf Steam Navigation Company Limited, Kuwait, and the Mesopotamia Persia Corporation Limited, Kuwait, which primarily concerns rates of freight. The volume includes several items of correspondence that are written in Arabic.