Page 320 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

256 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
surrendered byTurkey,in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty
of Lausanne of 1923. Moreover, it is evident that after the liquidation
of the Turkish Empire Iraq became subject to the mandatory system,
under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, while
Kuwait remained, as before, a distinct territory under British
protection.1

Continued maintenance of the claim
In order to establish the validity of her claim to Kuwait, Iraq should
also be able to prove that this claim was not subsequently lost as a
result of Iraq's past conduct towards Kuwait which could be construed
as an ‘acquiescence in the continued existence of Kuwait as a separate
entity'.2 Furthermore, the independent State of Iraq had already
recognised in 1932 the present boundary limits of Kuwait by virtue
of the Exchange of Letters of 21 July and 10 August 1932 between the
then Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri Pasha al-Said, and the former Ruler
of Kuwait, Shaikh Ahmad Al-Sabah, respectively.3 This Exchange of
Letters of 1932 had, in fact, reaffirmed ‘the existing frontier between
Iraq and Koweit’, the definition of which was already embodied in a
former Exchange of Letters, dated 4 April and 19 April 1923, between
Shaikh Ahmad Al-Sabah and Sir Percy Cox, the then British High
Commissioner for Iraq, respectively.*1 Although the Iraq-Kuwait
1 See Pillai, R. V., and Kumar, Mahendra, ‘The Political and Legal Status of
Kuwait’, I.C.L.Q., II (1962), pp. 128 ct seq.
I 2 Ibid. Evidence of tacit recognition by Iraq of Kuwait as a separate entity can
be found in a number of inter-governmental correspondence which took place
in the past between Iraq and Kuwait in relation to various commercial, economic
and security matters. See The Kuwaiti-Iraqi Crisis op. cit., pp. 15-32 for reproduc­
tion of the texts of such correspondence. See also ibid., p. 7, for the list of names
of the International Organisations to the membership of which Kuwait was
admitted with the Iraqi Government’s consent. And in particular, Iraq had spon­
sored Kuwait’s application to join the International Telecommunication Union
and the International Labour Organisation. Sec Gott, Richard, The Kuwait
Incident’, Survey of International AJfairs (1961), p. 525.
3 Great Britain, The Pink Volume (Foreign Office Unpublished Records) Con­
taining the Collection of Treaties and Engagements Relating to the Persian Gulf
Shaikhdoms and the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman in Force up to the End of 1953.
4 The Exchange of Letters of 1923 is published in Aitchison, Document
No. XLIII, p. 266. The definition of the Iraq-Kuwait frontier in the 1932 Letters,
which is similar to that of the 1923 Letters, states the frontier line as follows:
‘From the intersection of the Wadi-el-Audja with the Batin and thence north­
wards along the Batin to a point just south of the latitude of Safwan; thence east­
wards passing south of Safwan wells, Jcbcl Sanam and Umm Qasr leaving them to
Iraq and so on to the junction of the Khor Zobeir with the Khor Abdulla. The
islands of Warbah, Bubiyan, Maskan (or Mashjan), Failakah, Auhah, Kubbar,
Qaru and Umm-el-Maradim appertain to Koweit.’
See Pink Volume, op. cit. Note, in this connection, that although the 1932 betters
form, in practice, the basis for the Iraq-Kuwait border, however between 1938-58,
the Government of Iraq objected to demarcating the frontier on this basis.