IOR/R/15/5/214

This file contains correspondence between British officials concerning the activities and standing of Izzat Jaafar ['Izzat Jafar], the Secretary of the Ruler of Kuwait, Shaikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.

Much of the correspondence concerns allegations that Jafar was an agent of the Italian Government and was involved in smuggling weapons. Jafar was eventually expelled from Kuwait on the basis of these allegations and the correspondence in the file discusses this and his subsequent return to the country.

The majority of the correspondence in the file is between British officials of the Middle East Intelligence Centre in Cairo, the Political Agency in Kuwait and the Political Residency in Bushire.

The file also contains copies of letters that were exchanged between Jafar and an Iraqi government official who was being held in a British internment camp following Britain's invasion and military occupation of Iraq in 1941. These letters are in Arabic and accompanied by English translations (folios 100-106).

In addition to correspondence, the file also contains an April 1941 issue of Radio Araba di Bari, the monthly magazine of the Italian Government's Arabic language radio station, Radio Bari (folios 64-81) and a translation of an article about Kuwait that was published in al-Sayad, an Egyptian Arabic weekly magazine on 10 August 1948 (folio 119).