Mubarak Al-Sabah anxiety over possible encroachment by the Great Powers, most notably Britain and Russia into the region due to the construction of the Baghdad Railway. They thought that bestowing the title could dissuade any foreign powers from interfering with Kuwait. "See Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement of 1899" The long Ottoman indecisiveness in naming Mubarak kaymakam, as well as feelings of vulnerability helped pave the way for Mubarak to pursue British ties. On January 18, 1899 Mubarak signed a secret agreement with Major M.J. Meade, British political resident in Bushire, that guarded Kuwait against any outside foreign aggression. It also required Mubarak and his
Postage stamps and postal history of the postal convention states of India of 117 stamps and 68 official stamps from 1885 till 20 Aug 1948 when it was absorbed into the Patiala and East Punjab states union. Patiala was a princely state in the Punjab. The largest, wealthiest and most populous of the Phulkian states, it had the highest precedence amongst them. Patiala was the first of the Phulkian states to sign a postal convention which it did on 1 October 1884. The convention was later modified in 1900. At the time of the signing of the convention, the ruler Maharaja Rajendra Singh, was a minor and the state administered by a