IOR/R/15/5/115

Correspondence and papers concerning negotiations finalising and ratifying trade, ‘Friendship and Neighbourly Relations’ (referred to in previous correspondence on the subject as Bon Voisinage) and extradition treaties between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The volume is a direct chronological continuation of ‘1/1 Volume VI Kuwait Saudi Relations’ (IOR/R/15/5/114) and includes:

• Draft copies of the agreements, in both Arabic and English.
• Correspondence concerning the removal of article 7 of the Friendship and Neighbourly Relations agreement, relating to the nationality of tribes covered by the agreement, and subsequent efforts to draw up a list of tribes of Saudi and Kuwait nationality, to be added to the agreement in the form of a letter.
• The King of Saudi Arabia Ibn Saud’s [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] intention, articulated to the British Government in April 1940, to establish a customs post at Wafra [Al Wafrah], in the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi territory, and the Ruler of Kuwait’s [Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ] opposition to the plan.
• Correspondence concerning final acceptance of the agreements in March 1942 (f 245) and arrangements for their signing and ratification in April 1942.
• A press communiqué dated 4 June 1942, announcing the signing of the agreements and their handover to the Ruler of Kuwait (f 264), and a further communiqué dated 5 May 1943, announcing the ratification of the agreements (f 277).

The volume’s principal correspondents are: the Kuwait Political Agent (Major Arnold Crawshaw Galloway; Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson; Major Tom Hickinbotham); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior); the British Government’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (Reader William Bullard; Hugh Stonehewer Bird); the Ruler of Kuwait (Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ).