Abstract: The file concerns the circumstances leading up to the grant of a lease in October 1907 by Shaikh Mubarak [Mubārak bin Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ] of Koweit [Kuwait] to the British Government of land on the foreshore of Kuwait at Bunder Shweikh [Bandar Shawaykh].The principal correspondents are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Major Percy Zachariah Cox); the Political Agent at Kuwait (Major Stuart George Knox); the Viceroy of India (the Earl of Minto); and senior officials at the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Government of India, and the Admiralty.The papers cover: the request by the Political Agent at Kuwait for a steam launch, and his recommendation for the purchase of part of the foreshore from the Shaikh of Kuwait, in order that the Political Agent could visit any part of the coastline under his charge, and to expedite the dispatch of mails to British India steamers, November 1905 (ff 266-268); concern expressed by the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor) that the establishment of a coal station and the setting up of a flagstaff in connection with the steam launch would excite Turkish suspicions, February 1906 (ff 262-265); the views of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station (Vice-Admiral Edmund Samuel Poe), and the Secretary to the Admiralty (Sir Evan MacGregor) on the relative merits of Kurein [Bunder Shweikh] and Kathama as terminal stations for a railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, May-July 1906 (ff 253-261); the terms proposed by the Government of India, July 1907 (ff 238-243); reports of negotiations with the Shaikh of Kuwait over the acquisition of the foreshore at Bunder Shweikh, in view of the possibility of the site being used as a terminus for the Bagdad Railway, January-July 1907 (ff 230-237); the terms proposed by the Shaikh of Kuwait, August-September 1907 (ff 211-225); papers concerning the draft agreement with the Shaikh of Kuwait, August-September 1907 (ff 182-198); and the conclusion of the agreement, a document entitled 'Further Collection of Papers respecting Koweit, the Baghdad Railway etc.' (November 1907), and discussion of the accidental inclusion in the agreement of Warba Island, September 1907 - February 1908 (ff 123-178).The Arabic content of the file consists of four folios of correspondence between the Shaikh of Kuwait and the Political Agent, Kuwait concerning the agreement (ff 195-198).The date range gives the covering dates of all the documents in the file; the last dated document in the file is dated 25 February 1908; the last dated addition to the file is note on folio 124; the date range of the minute papers given on the subject divider on folio 122 is 1905-08.Physical description: 147 folios
Abstract: 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.Physical description: 113 folios