IOR/L/PS/12/2854

This volume is a continuation of IOR/L/PS/12/2853. It consists of extensive correspondence, memoranda and reports regarding date garden properties in Iraq owned by the Shaikh of Kuwait, changes to their tax-exempt status, and lawsuits regarding their ownership. Properties owned by the Shaikh of Mohammerah are also discussed in the volume.

The volume opens with correspondence regarding a plan to have the lawsuits against the Shaikh of Kuwait dropped, by paying the plaintiffs to desist. Other topics discussed include: a proposal to allow the Iraqi Government to tax the estates, and for HMG to compensate the Shaikhs of Kuwait and Mohammerah accordingly; difficulties in establishing the exact extent of the Iraq properties owned by the Shaikh of Kuwait; an application by the Basra Port Directorate to take possession of certain land belonging to the Fao property of the Shaikh of Kuwait; and suggestions that the Government of Iraq establish a commission to investigate the ownership and tax status of the properties.

The principal correspondents and authors are: the High Commissioner for Iraq (Francis Henry Humphrys), the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Political Agent, Kuwait (Harold Richard Patrick Dickson), the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Hugh Vincent Boscoe), and HM Ambassador to Iraq (Archibald Clark Kerr). The volume also contains translations of letters received from the Shaikh of Kuwait (Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ), his lawyer (Jacob Gabriel), and the Agent in Iraq to the Shaikh of Mohammerah (Shaikh Khaz'al bin Jābir Mirdāw al-Ka'bī).

The following reports and legal documents appear within the volume:

• Statements of losses sustained by the Shaikh of Kuwait through payment of the Istihlak tax, export duty, and compensating tenants during 1932-1933 and 1934, ff 506-530 and 190-196 respectively.
• Statements of losses sustained by the Shaikh of Mohammerah through payment of the Istihlak tax on his date properties in Iraq, ff 395-397, 399, and 401-403.
• Details of the garden properties which were in the possession of the Shaikh of Kuwait in 1914, and which were included in HMG's 1914 pledge (Al Mutaawa'ah, Al Faddaghiyeh, Al Farhaniyeh - cum - Kushaishiyeh, Al Fao, and Al 'Ujairawiyeh), ff 348-360.
• Translation of a letter from Jacob Gabriel to the Mutasarrif of Basra, regarding the Port Directorate application, ff 266-268.
• Note on the exempted 'Ujairawiyeh estate, made by the Political Agent, Kuwait, ff 279-280.
• Reports from the Political Agent, Kuwait on the Shaikh's estae at Fao, including a diagram of the contended plots, and an excerpt from the An Nas newspaper providing details of the boundaries of the estate, ff 74-82.
• Details of the suits brought against the Shaikh in respect of certain land or land rights, including a list of cases to be heard in the Basra Court of First Instance, ff 86-92.
• Historical summary of the case, and proposals made by HM Ambassador to Iraq, ff 9-24.

The file continues with Collection 17/8 part 3, reference IOR/L/PS/12/2855.

The volume includes dividers which give lists of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. These are placed at the end of the correspondence (folios 4-5).