IOR/L/PS/12/2893

The file contains papers mainly relating to the port at Um Qasr (Umm Qasr). These papers mostly concern a notification of the schedule of dues and charges to be imposed by the Government of Iraq on vessels navigating to Um Qasr port (printed in the Iraq Government Gazette No. 24 of 14 June 1942); specifically, the response HM Ambassador to Iraq should make to the notification, with regards to the rights of the Sheikh [Shaikh] of Koweit [Kuwait], and the wider question of the disputed frontier between Iraq and Koweit.

The file also includes some correspondence relating to HM Government’s decision to dismantle the port installations at Um Qasr in 1945.

The papers in the file mainly consist of correspondence, India Office internal notes, India Office minutes, and copies of minutes of an interdepartmental meeting of representatives of the India Office, the Military Sub-Committee, the Admiralty, the War Office, the Foreign Office, and the Port Director at Basra, of 27 August 1943, to discuss Um Qasr.

The main correspondents are the following: the India Office, the Foreign Office, the External Affairs Department of the Government of India, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and HM Ambassador, Baghdad (Sir Kinahan Cornwallis). Other correspondents include the Political Agent at Kuwait, and the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Persia and Iraq Command.