RECEN ARCH B Minutes 17C 1951 U.K. REPRESENTATION IN THE PERSIAN GULF BA 1892/st. I have read these papers and shall be very pleased to discuss the question at your convenience. Not recarol B Dis n 2. I have had some discussion of this matter with both Sir B. Burrows and with Mr. Halford during my visit to the Gulf in February 1958. It would be invidious for me to express views at this stage, but my preliminary judgment is that it would be a mistake to take the initiative in suggesting any immediate change in our form of representation. I am pretty sure that the Ruler of Kuwait is satisfied with the present pattern and it is more a question of giving some sop to local nationalist opinion than anything else; in other words it is a question Boy fom rather than substance. NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN 3. This raises the question of the title of the Political Resident (and therefore of the Political Agentes), which in my experience is constantly being raised by British visitors to the Middle East. The general feeling is that the titles are an unfortunate survival of the British Raj in India and that we ought to find some modern equivalent e.g. Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner or the Commissioner and the Commissioner General (rather on the pattern of South-East Asia). 4. I shall be glad to know the latest views of the Department and rather assume that no immediate change is in any case contemplated until the matter has been discussed with Sir B. Burrows and until I myself have had an opportunity to comment from Bahrain. 1. (G.H, Middleton) October 14, 1958 Mr. Riches I have discussed with Sir George. I made the points about lack of local pressure for a change, the innocuous and even useful translation of "agent" into Arabic and the fact that the Agencies are called Consulates anyway by the local people; But added that any proposals based on the feelings of the Arabs submitted from the Gulf would, I am sure, have most sympathetic consideration here. /2. 43715 (7213) A.O.St.
