IOR/L/PS/12/2892

The file contains papers relating to the proposed construction of a port in Kuwait (Koweit) Bay, and the construction of a port in Um Qasr Creek.

The papers mostly concern the following:

• The attitude of HM Government towards the proposal of the Government of Iraq for the extension of the Iraqi railway system through Kuwait territory to the coast at Koweit Bay, and the construction there of a port under Iraqi control. This proposed port would provide Iraq with an additional commercial outlet to the sea on the Persian Gulf, as an alternative to the Shatt-al-Arab.
• The Iraqi Government’s adoption of the alternative recommendation of Um Qasr Creek in the Khor Abdulla as the location for the port, and the Iraqi Government raising the question of territorial concessions from Kuwait in relation to the port.
• The decision of British military authorities in 1941 to construct a port at Um Qasr as an urgent military necessity, to remain under British military control during the Second World War, and the proposal to improve port facilities in Koweit itself in order to enable troops and stores to be disembarked there.
• The location of the selected site for the port in Um Qasr Creek in relation to the disputed frontier between Iraq and Kuwait.

The papers largely consist of India Office minute papers and internal notes, papers of the Committee of Imperial Defence Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, and correspondence and copy correspondence between the following:

• The India Office and the Foreign Office.
• The India Office and the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf.
• The India Office and the Government of India External Affairs Department.
• The Foreign Office and HM Embassy, Baghdad (Maurice Peterson, Sir Basil Cochrane Newton, Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, and W E Houston-Boswall).
• The Commander in Chief in the Middle East, the Commander in Chief in India, and the War Office.

Other correspondents in the file include the Army Council, the Air Council, the Admiralty, the Political Agent at Kuwait (Tom Hickinbotham), and the Ruler of Kuwait (Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ).

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.