Mellon arrived in Britain in April 1932, receiving a friendly reception from a country he had often visited over the previous thirty years. From his post, he watched the collapse of the international economic order, including the debt accords that he had helped negotiate. He also convinced the British to allow Gulf Oil to operate in Kuwait, a British protectorate in the oil-rich region of the Persian Gulf. Defying Mellon's expectations, Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. Mellon left office when Hoover's term ended in March 1933, returning to private life after twelve years of government service.