Page 104 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

42 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
British Government, on the ground that it did not favour more
■ i
i interference in Kuwait’s affairs than was necessary for the mainten­
I
ance of peace in the Gulf.1
Soon afterwards, circumstances arose which compelled the British
1
Government to have second thoughts over its attitude to Kuwait.
The immediate danger which prompted the change in British policy
took the form of a threat of Russian intrusion in Kuwait. It was
' believed that Russia obtained from the Porte a concession for the
construction of a railway from the Mediterranean to the Arabian
Gulf. The British Government feared in this scheme the establishment
of a bridge for the ‘creation of Russian territorial rights at Kuwait.’2
;
In order to forestall the Russian action in Kuwait, the British
: £ Government considered signing a treaty with the Shaikh of Kuwait
on the same model as that concluded in 1891 with the Sultan of
Muscat. The sole object of such an agreement was to prevent the
i
; Shaikh from alienating any portion of his territory to any foreign
government. It was decided not to pursue the question of British
protection over Kuwait for the time being.3
In consideration of this agreement the Shaikh was to receive ‘a
single payment of £5,000 or less, or an annual subsidy not exceed­
-I ing £200’.
-A
The Agreement of 23 January 18991
This agreement was signed between Malcolm John Meade, the
British Political Resident, and Shaikh Mubarak ibn Sabah AI-
Sabah, Shaikh of Kuwait. The Shaikh pledged ‘himself, his heirs and
successors not to receive the Agent or Representative of any Power or
Government at Kuwait, or at any other place within the limits of his
territory, without the previous sanction of the British Government’.
Other provisions of the Treaty bound the Shaikh, his heirs and
successors, ‘not to cede, sell, lease, mortgage or give for occupation or
for any other purpose any portion of his territory to the Government
or the subjects of any other Power without the previous consent of
Her Majesty’s Government for these purposes’. Stipulations were
also made against the alienation of ‘any portion of the territory . . .
which may now be in the possession of the subjects of any other
Government’.
In a letter from Colonel Meade to the Shaikh, attached to this
agreement, Colonel Meade assured the Shaikh of the good offices of

1 Lorimcr, pp. 1021-2. 2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., pp. 1022-4; Aitchison, p. 202.
4 For the text of the Agreement, sec Appendix XI. For the original Arabic and
English texts sec India, Foreign and Political Departments, Part 5, Treaties and
undertakings in force between the British Government and Rulers of Kuwait,
1884-1913, pp. 1-14.