Page 110 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf - Vol II) 1907-1953

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which the following proposals were made. No further claim would be made for the
exemption of the properties from taxation provided the Iraqi Government
undertook not to claim arrears and to impose no discriminatory taxation in the
future. With regard to the possession of the properties, all uncertainties should
be removed regarding their boundaries, and a formal title to them should be
awarded to the Ruler through the application of the procedure laid down in the
Iraqi Land Settlement Law of 1932. His Majesty’s Government undertook to
abide by the decisions of the Land Settlement Officer as to the boundaries of
the properties and not to make any claim against the Iraqi Government in
respect of any changes in them resulting from the land settlement procedure.
An assumption was made that orders would be issued by the appropriate
Iraqi authorities to ensure that the Ruler’s non-Iraqi nationality would constitute
no impediment to the compilation of the registration. The Iraqis received
these proposals well, but endeavoured to make their acceptance of them
conditional upon Kuwait’s acceptance of certain proposals about smuggling which
they had put forward in 1935 (paragraph 119 above). They eventually replied in.
October 1938.(317) Their note (Appendix I (v)) accepted His Majesty’s Government’s
proposals subject to a few reservations, and it was confirmed that the nationality
of tne Ruler would constitute no impediment to the completion of the registration
of the properties. The Iraqi Government insisted that in future they should
exercise Iraqi jurisdiction over all the properties in the same way as they did over
other immovable property in Iraq. His Majesty’s Embassy informed the Iraqi
Government that His Majesty’s Government accepted the terms of the reply
(Appendix I (vi)).
136. As a result of the promise made to the Iraqi Government not to make any
further claim for the exemption of the properties from taxation it became necessary
to compensate the heirs of Mubarak for the losses which they had suffered or would
suffer from the imposition of the Istihlak tax. A sum of £30,694 was accordingly
paid to the Ruler in 1940 in return for a discharge of His Majesty’s Government’s
guarantee of the immunity of the properties from taxation (Appendix I (vii)).
137. The Land Settlement Law of 1932 referred to in the note of July 1936
to the Iraqi Government (paragraph 135 above) was replaced by a new law in 1938,
but Her Majesty’s Government have never insisted that under the terms of the
exchange of notes in 1936 and 1938 the Ruler’s properties should be dealt with
under the old law. The new law contained a provision that land which was not
“ mulk ” (freehold) could be registered as 4* miri ” (Crown) land granted in “ tapu ”
(registration) in the name of the person who had planted it with trees or used it
productively for not less than ten years prior to the settlement decision. In
March 1941 it became known to His Majesty’s Embassy at Bagdad that the Iraqi
Government were intending to amend the 1938 law so as to provide that any
person in whose name land was so registered must be an Iraqi. His Majesty’s
Embassy were able to obtain the insertion of a clause in this provision that it would
not apply to foreigners to whom the Iraqi Government had previously undertaken
to grant miri land within the Basra Liwan. In August 1941 the Iraqi Minister for
Foreign Affairs confirmed in a note (Appendix I (viii)) that this clause was intended
to cover the Ruler of Kuwait and that there was nothing in the law to affect the
exchange of letters of 1936 and 1938.
138. The Land Settlement procedure appears only to have been applied to
Faddaghiyah and Fao estates. The whole of the former was registered in the
Ruler’s name, and appeals against this decision failed (paragraph 131 above). The
Fao estate is the largest and most important of the Ruler’s properties in Iraq.
The Ruler had been having trouble with his tenants on it since 1934. The estate
was registered by the Land Settlement Committee as belonging to “ the heirs of
Shaikh Jabir bin Abdullah al Subah ” (who died, in 1859), one plot as mulk and the
remaining six plots as miri granted in Tapu, and this decision was notified in the
Iraqi Government Gazette of February 1944. Nearly 3,000 appeals were lodged
by the. tenants against it, and orders were, not passed, on them until July 1949.
Meanwhile, the Ruler was unable to obtain his share of the produce from the
tenants, and. in 1946 the Political Agent calculated, that he had lost £50,000 in this,
manner. Further, the tenants had succeeded in obtaining possession of accretions
of cultivable land between the gardens and the Shatt- al Arab to which the owner
of the property would ordinarily be entitled: Another complication was the
(3,T) Bagdad to F.O. 543 of-November 3. 1938 (E 6676/28/93 of. 1938).
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