IOR/L/PS/12/3894B

The file concerns the administration and finances of the state of Koweit [Kuwait], and in particular the proposed appointment of a British Financial Adviser to the Shaikh of Kuwait [Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ], a role similar to that of Charles Dalrymple Belgrave in Bahrain. This was against the background of the increasing revenues of Kuwait, derived from the country's burgeoning oil industry. A Foreign Office letter of March 1948 expressed concern that Kuwait and Bahrain, which were relatively two of the more important of the Gulf shaikhdoms, did not appear to have realised that 'the increasing strategic and economic importance of their states' demanded an improvement in their present standard of administration in order to carry out a programme of administrative and social reform, and so avoid political agitation and economic unrest in the future (folio 6).

The papers include correspondence on the subject from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Political Agent, Kuwait; statements of account of the Kuwait Revenue Department, 1945-47 (folios 41-44); papers concerning the management of Kuwait's finances; and discussion of the names of possible candidates from the Indian Political Service to fill the position of Financial Adviser.

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.