Page 322 - PERSIAN 9 1931_1940

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not commenced working thoif'conccmfon byt^endof'the year°“Pany had

secured Oil
Shaikh Said bin Maktum of Dibai.
Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr of Sharjah.
Shaikh Sultan bin Salim of Has al Khaimah and
Shaikh Rashid bin Humaid of Ajman

American . 49
European British subjects 20
Indian British subjects
61
Bahrainis
1,283
f Iranians,
Others . ■( Iraqis, •1 y 244
b Kuwaitis, cto.
J
When the French Sloop “Bougainville” visited Ras al Khaimah on
11th February, overtures for a French geologist to examine the possibility
of oil in Ras al Khaimah territory were mad'e by the Shaikh to Contre-
Amiral Rivet, who was reported to have replied that he would try and send
one in about three months’ time. To forestall this possibility the Resident
asked the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company to send one of their geologists as soon
as possible to visit Ras al Khaimah which was accordingly done.
Kuwait.—The Shaikh of Kuwait’s date gardens in Iraq (see Review of
last year). Nothing definite had resulted towards the solution of this
difficult problem by the end of the year.
The declining importance of the pearl industry is shown by~ the fact
that only 250 pearling boats put out for the season as compared with 300
the previous year.
The question of the Kuwait-Iraq Smuggling (see Review of last year)
was finally solved by the Iraq Government in the autumn instituting their
own Preventive Service on economical and effective lines.
As in 1934 incidents continued of Iraq Customs officials and Police
violating Kuwait territory and territorial waters and ill-treating and assum­
ing Kuwait subjects. In spite of continued representations made by His
Majesty’s Government on behalf of the Shaikh of Kuwait to the Iraq Gov­
ernment, no reparations have been forthcoming from the latter who have
continued to reply that either such incidents did not take place as reported
or occurred in Iraq waters. As pointed out in the Review of last year it
must be remembered, as an important factor in this problem, that while
Kuwaitis are amongst those who actually smuggle goods by sea into Iraq
territory from Kuwait, on land, where the contraband trade is by far the
greater, it is the Iraqi tribesmen who are the carriers—Kuwait being
merely the market where they purchase their goods.
Ibn Saud’s blockade of exports from Kuwait into Saudi Arabia (see
Review of last year) continued with the same severity as before. Through
the mediation of His Majesty’s Government a Saudi delegation visited
Kuwait in June to discuss with the Shaikh means by which the latter con c
co-operate with the Saudi Government in checking smuggling, in return tor
which co-operation the Saudi Government would raise the blockade, ine
immediate result of the conference was not hopeful owing to the lntransigc-
attitude of the Saudi delegates who insisted that, unless the Shaikh gna -
an teed that not a single smuggler would cross the front, or. won d com
to no agreement. Later representations however by His Majesty s Minister,