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72 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE

CHAPTER XI.

Administration Report of the Kuwait Political Agency for the year 1920.

Personnel.
Captain D. V. McCollum was in charge of the Agency from 1st January
till ‘1th February. From 6th February till 24th May the charge of the current
duties was held by Mr. L. M. D’Mello, the Head Clerk. Major J. C. More,
D.S.O., arrived on the 25th May, and remained in charge of the Agency till
the close of the year.
Dr. C. 8. G. Mylroa, O.B.E., of the American Mission, remained in
medical charge of the Agency throughout the year.
Condition of Country.

The year has been marked by very strained relations between the Sheikh
of Kuwait and Ibn Sa’ud. On the ISth April the Sheikh of Kuwait repre­
sented that he had received a report to the effect that Ibn Sa’ud had instructed
Ibn Shuqair, of the Mutair tribe and a staunch member of the Ikhwan sect,
to build houses and settle with his followers at Jariyah, a hundred miles south
of Kuwait, which the Sheikh claimed as being within his territory. He stated
that he could not vouch for the truth of the report, and did not wish his
communication to be taken as a complaint against Ibn Sa’ud, but that he was
afraid that if such encroachments wore made, thoy would lead to troubles
between Ibn 8a’ud and himself. Six days later he formally requested
that His Majesty’s Government would address Bin Sa’ud with a view
to preventing this encroachment in his territory, and asked that early action
might be taken as the tension between Ibn Sa’ud and himself was increasing,
and the former’s tribes had started robbing caravans and murdering travellers
in Kuwait territory. On the 3rd May he asked if any action had been
taken, and said that he was anxious to know, as it was customary for his
tribes to camp at Jariyah and the neighbouring wells in the summer. He
■was told that the Civil Commissioner considered the matter one for friendly
negotiations in the first instance between him and Ibn Sa’ud. On the 12th
May Shaikh Salim called on the Head Clerk and pointed out that his
relations with Ibn Sa’ud were so impaired that ho considered it impossible
to settle the matter without the intervention of His Majesty’s Government.
He showed him the correspondence which had passed between them in the
beginning of 1919 regarding Balbul, 135 miles south south-east of Kuwait,
where Sheikh Salim had then purposed building a house, a procedure to which
Ibn Sa’ud had objected, which showed that there was practically a dead-lock
between them. He said that, notwithstanding all this, he had taken our advice
and made friendly representations to Ibn Sa’ud, through the latter’s agent here
and others. He said that when His Majesty’s Government had ordered him
not to build at Balbul he had at once stopped doing so, and lie asked that
similar orders might be given to Ibn Sa'ud regarding Jariyah, and that Ibn
Sa’ud might be told what the Kuwait boundaries were. On the 26th May the
Political Agent conveyed the Civil Commissioner’s reply to Shaikh Salim, to
the effect that he had carefully considered the question raised by him regarding
his frontiers, but did not see his way to address Ibn Sa’ud in a letter for the
moment, until he received his reply to a letter wdiich he had sent him, inviting
him to a conference to settle various matters outstanding between himself and
King Husain. He hoped that this conference would take place within the
next few months and ho would then make it his business to see that the
interests of Kuwait were adequately represented.