Office of the Historian

890b.6363 Gulf Oil Corporation/161

The Ambassador in Great Britain (Mellon) to the Secretary of State

No. 483
London, November 12, 1932.
[Received November 23.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 465 of November 2, 1932, and to report that on November 11, having heard nothing from the Foreign Office since my call there on November 1, informal inquiry was made as to whether there had been any progress.

I receive now from the Permanent Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a letter dated November 11, copy of which is enclosed, with regard to the present status of the matter.

Respectfully yours,

(For the Ambassador)
Benjamin Thaw, Jr.

First Secretary of Embassy
[Enclosure]

The British Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Vansittart) to the American Ambassador (Mellon)

[London,] 11 November, 1932.

My Dear Ambassador: I am glad to be able to let you know that the Departments concerned have now completed the comparative examination of the draft concessions for oil exploitation in Koweit, submitted to the Sheikh by the Eastern and General Syndicate and by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company respectively, and that the document embodying the result of this examination is already on its way to the British authorities in the Persian Gulf.

On its receipt by them it will be communicated to the Sheikh of Koweit for his consideration.

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Meanwhile I am arranging to have a detailed reply prepared to the various other points raised in the memorandum which you left with me on November 2nd.

Yours very sincerely,

Robert Vansittart