69/a/50 Political Agency, Kuwait. April 4, 1950. co F.o ? Not copied to Dear Sir Rupert, Your letter 164/2/50 of January 9. 2. I have gone into the question of residence permits for persons under our jurisdiction and think it can be managed without any difficulty. A very simple King's Regu lation will surrice and I enclose a draft. I also enclose . for ease of reference a copy of the existing Kuwaiti law ( you already have a copy on your files). You will note that I have made one or two differ ences as compared with the Kuwaiti order. I consider the Kuwaiti period of 15 days for temporary stay too short and suggest one calendar month. (Abdulla Mubarak agreed with me on this ). I have also made the penalty for non-obsery ance the same as that for the king's Regulation (NO.1 of 1947) regarding visas. I may be able to persuade the Kuwaitis to alter their law to conform; if they don't it will not matter enormously. I suggest that before such a Regulation is publish ed, it be communicated as a draft to the Ruler with the exo planation that we consider that the administration of Kuwait should have some control over the comings and goings of all foreign residents in the territory and that we accordingly propose to pass such a regulation, but that to safeguard the interests of the people under our jurisdiction ( since this step is something of an experiment ) we should be glad of an assurance that on any occasion that the Political Agent may have any reason for requesting that a residence peruit be issued or withheld in respect of someone under our Jurisdiction, the Kuwaiti authorities will comply. should at the same time explain that the proviso that cer tain persons might be exempt from the requirement or hold ing residence permits with the approval of the Political Agent is to cover the cases of people who would enjoy quasi-diplomatic status, such as any foreign representative who might possibly be appointed. Abdulla Mubarak suggested that all applications for residence permits should come through the Agency. Although at first sight this would appear to be a formidable undertaking involving us in a great deal of work, I consider on reflection that in fact it would have great advantages inasmuch as it would enable us to keep a check on what was happening, and at the same time would in teot mean very little more wow, since every person is obliged to apply to / His Excelleney Sir Rupert Hay, KCIE., CSI., Political Resident, Persian Gull, Bahrain.
