3
Political Agency,
KUWAIT
1462/2
March 7, 1954.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Dear
Please refer to correspondence about the Ruler
of Kuwait's Date Gardens which now rests with Baghdad's
letter 1648/19/1953 pf November 20th to us.
I enclose a copy of a letter and its enclosure
from Kassim Abdul Baki Al Zuhair writing, he says, on
behalf of the heirs of Ali Pasha. He is making a new
claim for 15,000 Iraqi Dinars on the basis of the 1933
judgment which deprived the Al-Subah of the major part
of the Bashiyyah strip. The idea behind the claim is
evidently that the Al-Subah whose title to much of the
strip was found to be defective by the Deal courts in
1933. owe compensation to the rightful owners for the
date crops which Al-Subah enjoyed for the twenty years
during which they held the gardens before their possession
was disputed.
3. We naturally do not know the exact legal position
and we should therefore be grateful for your advice
whether as a result of the 1933 judgment the Al-Subah
could reasonably be expected to pay compensation for the
use of the crops between 1909 and 1933 and whether there
is any law of limitations in Iraq which would debar the
Al Zuhair from taking further legal proceedings so long
after the original judgment was pronounced.
In any case I think that it would be quite out of
place for us to approach the Ruler on behalf of the Al Zuhair. We are perhaps morally bound to do everything
possible to assist him to resist any further claims.
We could reply to Kassim Abdul Baki al Zuhair by saying
that the Political Agent cannot intervene, but he has
already sent his letter to the Ruler who may ask for our
advice, - or, more likely, give us the letter with another
plea for settlement of the whole problem. We may perhaps
eventually have to take the Bashiyyah case up with the
Iraq Government as well as the main issue.
5.
If the Al Zuhair pursue their case successfully
in the Iraqi Courts, I think that, despite the discharge
which Shaikh Ahmad gave us from all liability for the
lost portion of the Bashiyyah strip when we gave him
£8,400 to buy them back, Her Majesty's Government would
be morally bound to give the Ruler any sum that he might
have to pay to the Al Zuhair.
I am sending a copy of this letter to the Residency
in Bahrain and to bkr Embassy in Baghdad.
C.T.E. Ewart-Biggs, Esq.,
Foreign Office,
LONDON.
D.A. Logan.
