IOR/R/15/5/146

The volume contains correspondence related to the date gardens owned by the Shaikh of Kuwait, Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ, in southern Iraq. In particular, the correspondence concerns the service of judicial documents emanating from the Iraqi Government on the Shaikh of Kuwait in connection with his ownership of the gardens. The Political Agent in Kuwait and the British Ambassador in Baghdad mediate the talks between the Shaikh of Kuwait and the Iraqi Government in order to resolve the issue. The correspondence also concerns the action of the Basra Port Authorities in regards to the stakes they have driven into the strip of land which is part of the Shaikh’s Faw property, the suggestion made by British Officials to the Shaikh to give as a gift a piece of his land at Faw to the Government of Iraq, and the Shaikh’s complaints against the Iraqi Government for putting obstacles in the way of his agents and officials administrating his properties.

The volume includes records of meetings held at the Foreign Office, London, to discuss the questions of possession and title of the Shaikh of Kuwait, the liability of the Shaikhs’ properties to Iraqi taxation, and the British Government’s proposals for a comprehensive settlement of the date gardens issue.

The volume’s core correspondence covers March- July 1936. The earlier start date given to the volume is a result of correspondence by the British Embassy Baghdad, which includes the English text of the Iraqi Land Settlement Law of 1932 (ff 145-155), which is dated 5 June 1932.