IOR/L/PS/12/2212

Correspondence regarding allegations made by the Iraqi authorities that arms and ammunition are being smuggled into Iraq from Koweit [Kuwait]. The principal correspondents are: HM Ambassador at Baghdad (Archibald Clark Kerr, later Maurice Peterson); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Trenchard Craven Fowle); the Political Agent, Kuwait (Captain Gerald de Gaury); the Secretary of State for India; and the Government of India External Affairs Department.

The correspondence discusses the following: visits made by the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs (Naji al Asil, and later Taufiz Suwaidi) to Kuwait in 1936 and 1939, to discuss the alleged smuggling and possible measures to be adopted by Kuwait; reports of alleged smuggling incidents; reports made by the Political Agent, Kuwait, that Saudi Arabs are smuggling arms through Kuwaiti territory; reports on the general increase of arms being smuggled from the Red Sea coast; a suggestion by the Iraqi Foreign Minister that Iraq and Kuwait could form a customs union, or adopt combined preventive operations, in order to curtail the smuggling; requests made by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf that the Iraqi Government present evidence to substantiate their claims; and reports on the smuggling of firearms to Palestine through Akaba [Al 'Aqabah].

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 2).