IOR/L/PS/10/51/1

The papers concern the claims of Shaikh Mubarak [Mubārak bin Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ], Ruler of Koweit [Kuwait] to the islands of Bubiyan, Warba, and Umkasr [Umm Qaşr] against the competing claims of the Government of Turkey [the Ottoman Empire].

The principal correspondents are the British Ambassador at Constantinople (Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor); the Viceroy of India (Baron Curzon of Kedlestone; from 1905 the Earl of Minto); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Major Percy Zachariah Cox); the Political Agent, Kuwait (Major Stuart George Knox); and senior officials of the India Office, the Government of India, and the Foreign Office.

The papers cover: the nature of the claims of the Shaikh of Kuwait to Bubiyan and Umm Qaşr, December 1903 - April 1904 (folios 285-312); the views of the Viceroy on the issue, April 1904 (folios 279-283); proposed representations to the Ottoman Government by the British Ambassador at Constantinople concerning the establishment of Turkish military posts on the islands, May 1904 - May 1905 (folios 246-278); the Shaikh of Kuwait's views on a proposal that he establish a post on Bubiyan Island, and the proposed establishment of a permanent British Agent at Kuwait, June 1905 (folios 231-245); and papers concerning the Shaikh of Kuwait's rights over Warba and Bubiyan islands, including the view of the British Government in 1910 that it was inadvisable to assert the Shaikh's rights at that time, November 1907 - April 1910 (folios 201-230).

The date range gives the covering dates of all the documents contained in the papers; the covering dates of the Secret Department minute papers that enclose them, as given on folio 200, are 1904-1910.