IOR/R/15/5/206

This file contains correspondence between British officials regarding political developments in Kuwait. Specifically it relates to the suppression of an oppositionist reform movement (the majlis movement) that had successfully pressured the Ruler of Kuwait, Shaikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, to establish an elected administrative council in the country The correspondence in the file covers the period immediately after this council was dissolved onwards and discusses the various repressive measures subsequently taken, including the imprisonment and exile of several of its members.

The correspondence is primarily between the Political Agency in Kuwait and the Political Residency in Bushire, but the file also contains a limited amount of correspondence with Shaikh Ahmad (in Arabic accompanied by English translations).

In addition to correspondence, the file contains the following:

• a copy of the Organic Law of Trans-Jordan (folios 31-49).
• a draft constitution of Kuwait (folios 52-59).
• an article regarding the constitution of Kuwait published in al-Alam al-Arabi in 1939 (folio 61).
• a list of Kuwaiti youths that were alleged by the Political Agency in Kuwait to be 'anti-Shaikh and anti-British' (folios 122-123).
• a petition (in Arabic original and translated into English) that was sent to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf from the wives of a number of political prisoners in Kuwait (folios 147-148).