Page 271 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf - Vol II) 1907-1953
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We, Abdulla Salim al Subah, Ruler of Kuwait, hereby recognise the
*aid.................................. as Consul of the United States of America within our
State and call upon all whom it may concern to take due notice of this A’lan and
to afford the said..............................all such assistance as he may properly require
in the exercise of his official functions.
Given at Kuwait this day of , 1951.
APPENDIX K
Correspondence regarding British jurisdiction in Kuwait—1925 and 1952
(i)
(Paragraph 167)
Letter, dated November l 1925, from the Political Agent. Kuwait, to the Ruler
of Kuwait
With reference to Your Excellency’s letter of yesterday’s date, I regret that my
letter No. 342 dated the 24th October 1925 was not clear to Your Excellency, and
that, even after our conversation on Wednesday evening, Your Excellency still
seems to entertain some doubts as to the real objects of the Order in Council which
has been issued. I am accordingly repeating the main points in other words, and
I hope that by doing so I will remove these doubts.
In the first place I wish to make it perfectly clear that the powers conferred on
me by this Order in Council do not extend to the subjects of any Muslim
Government, such as Persians, Nejdis, &c., all of whom are considered for the
purpose of jurisdiction as the same as Your Excellency’s own subjects.
The only Foreigners with whom I am in any way concerned are the subjects
and protected persons of Non-Mus\im Governments, such as America, France,
Italy, Portugal, &c., and in their case, if any question should arise, I am sure Your
Excellency would prefer that it should be dealt with by the representative of His
Majesty’s Government rather than by yourself.
To reiterate: the powers conferred on me do extend to: —
{a) British subjects and protected persons.
(b) The subjects and protected persons of non-Muslim Foreign Governments.
(c) Kuwait subjects, or the subjects of other Muslim Governments, registered
in my office as being regularly employed by British subjects, or the
subjects of non-Muslim Foreign Governments. Such people must, I
am sure you will agree, be considered as under the protection of His
Majesty’s Government. It is laid down in the Order in Council,
however, that if a Kuwait subject desires to institute a complaint
against a British subject, or the subject of a non-Muslim Foreign
Power, I can either decide the case in my own court, or, if both are
Muslims and agree, have the case referred to the Qadhi for decision.
Similarly if British subject or the subject of a non-Muslim Foreign
Government complains against a Kuwait subject, I shall ask your
Excellency to decide the case, and it is specially provided that employed
Kuwait subjects shall be dealt with in the same way as other Kuwait
subjects in this respect. In cases in which Kuwait subjects and
“ employed ” Kuwait subjects are concerned, however, as the latter are
under British protection for the time being, I think you will agree that
they have to have the same privileges in this respect as other British
subjects, and, as shown above, they lose no privileges as Kuwait subjects.
T think the above will remove the doubts from your mind and show you that
the Order in Council will not injure the rights of anyone, and I shall be grateful it
you will let me know if this is so.