Page 243 - 4 Persian Trade rep KUWAIT 2_Neat

Report on the Trade of Kuwait for the year 1931-32.

(ht April 1931 to 31st March 1932.)

BY
Lieutenant-Colonel H. R. P. Dickson, C.IJE.,
Political Agent, Kuwait.

General. in the tailoring trade. Outside the Capital the in-
. habitants of the principality are all Arabs and are
(a) The. Pmictpah'y of hweaxt. Kuwait is an noma«ls. At a rough estimate these number about
Independent Arab S*atc in Joccial treaty relation.^ ]00()0 souls. The onlv settled villages are Jahrah,
with His Majesty’s Government. It has a distinc- ftt thc hcad <lf the Kuwait bay, which has a popula-
tivc dag of its own: red with word * Kuwait ini tion of about , 000 Ma]s. faiikah village, on the
Arabic characters written in white across it. iH]and of thc game name at the entrance of the
On thc Rnlcr’s own flag are also written thc Kuwait bay with a similar population and the
words vertically ami close to thc flag.-taf! side of smaller villages of Hawaii, Di.uaah, Fantas, Aba
thc flag " ''’here is no Cod bit God and Mohamcd Hulaifah, Fuhaihil and Shu’aibih to thc South
is His Prophcrt.” and South-East of Kuwait.
(b) Thc Frontier.-—Thc frontier line of Kuwait (c) Thc Town of Kuwait.—The Town now measure*
is as follows :— about 31 milts along the shore, having extended
Starting from the Souther* portion of Has al- considerably in recent years towards the East.
Qulai’ah (43 miles from Kuwait), with thc Town greatest depth, about a mile and a quarter, a
(Political Agency) a_s centre it describes an arc nPar tbc cc"tre of the Town, where the long suburb
towards thc West until it intersects 20° latitude, called Murqab has grown out from it towards the
and from this point runs in a straight line to thc South-East.
Batin valley, (near Riirai) opposite the junction of The streets are irregular and winding and the
the Wadi al-Aujah with the Batin. Thc line then Town is not hid out on any general plan. Most
runs Northward along thc Batin valley to a point of the houses have only a ground floor, but appear
just South of the latitude of Safwan, then East- higher owing to a parapet wall enclosing thc roof,
ward, passing immedJately South of Jabal Sanam, There are over 40 Mosques, of which nine are Friday
Safwan and Urn Qasr. and so on to thc unction of Congregational Mosques. None of them have any
the Kuwait with the Khaur ’Abdullah. The terri- architectural merit and follow closely the severe
tory enclosed within this line and the Persian Gulf, and simple style of those found in Nejad and th«
together with the Lland of Warbah, Bubiyah, Wahabi Capital of Riyadh; Mosque minarets from
Maskan, Fallakah, ’Anhah, Kubbar and Urara which the faithful are called to prayer are «f tho
Al-Maradim, is recognised as belonging to Kuwait. squat square type and do not overlook the neigh-
(c) Kuxcait Keutral Area.—The tract of country bouring houses.
bounded on the North by tie Southern portion In the year 1920, the existing Town Wall was
of the Kuwait frontier as described above, on the built by the late Shaikh Salim al Mubarrak aa-
East by sea, and the West by ihc Shaqq and on the Subah. It is about 4£ miles in length and has three
South by the straight line ruining due East from gates. In addition to the gates which are protected
the Shaqq through ’Ain al ’Abd to the sea North by towers, there is a bastion every 200 yards through-
of Ras al Misb’ab, is recognised as common to the out the length of the wall. At its base the wall
two States of Nejd and Kuwait, in which both is some 13 feet broad bat tapers to 3 feet at the
enjoy equal rights. top. Its height is about 16 feet between towers.
(d) Population.—The Capital itself has a popula- (/) Education.—There are a great many schools
tion of about 60,000 souls of whom the greatest of a sort in Kuwait. The Arabs conduct at least
majority are Arabs. The Persian community, 52, the Persians have 11 and the Jews and Chris-
however, has greatly Increased in recent years and turns one each making a total of 65. Of the Arab
now consists of aboat 10,000 souls. There are schools 27 are for boys and 25 for girls. These
over 5,000 negroes, some 300 Iraqis and a few Jews, schools are not under any control of the local govera-
There are also about a dozen Indians mostly engaged ment. Thc curriculum in most of the