Page 108 - PERSIAN GULF ADMINISTRATION REPORTS V1

6 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OP TIIE PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL RESIDENCY

have secretly left Muscat. As yet no information has been received
regarding her, notwithstanding all the efforts that have been made to
obtain information. Several copies of the anti-slavery proclamation have
been furnished to the various British Agents; these have been posted
in conspicuous places, and the widest publicity has been given to the
orders of Government on this subject and the penalties attaching to
their infringement.

Report on trade of the Persian Gulp for 1874.

The report on trade for the year 1873 being intended as the first of
a series was prefaced by some general remarks on the subject, which, so
far as the circumstances arc unaltered, need no repetition.
.'during the }7car 1874 a weekly line of mail steamers commenced
running between Iudia and the Persian Gulf and Busrah; and although
the direct line of steamers between London and Busrah was temporarily
discontinued, this service is about to be re-established on an improved
system by the British India Steam Navigation Company.
The statistical information collected for the year 1874 will be found
in a set of tabular statements of similar form to those submitted with
the last Annual Report with the addition of
Noa. 1 to 22.
the “ contrasted Statements” exhibiting the
increase and decrease of imports and exports at the ports of Hush ire and
Bahrein as compared with those of the previous year.
The memorandum on the subject of the opium trade of Persia
drawn up by Mr. G. Lucas, Uncovenanted
No. 23.
Assistant Resident, which accompanies this
Report, will be seen to contain interesting information on that subject.
There has been a very marked falling off in trade as regards the
Persian Coast during the year under report. At the port of Bushire the
decrease is shown in both imports and exports, and amounts to an
aggregate of over eighteen lakhs of rupees. This decrease would have
been still greater, but for the removal of the prohibition on the export of
grain and increased exportation of opium.
The Persian market is supposed to be still overstocked, and a further
depression of trade may be expected.
The harvests in the south have been but scanty, and though the
return probably covers the outlay, it will scarcely do more.
The same impediments to trade as were alluded to in the previous
Report still exist in Southern Persia, except perhaps it may be allowed
that the efforts of His Royal Highness the Governor-General of Fars
have rendered the caravan roads in his province more secure than they
were.
The hopes that had been formed of reforms and innovations tending
to develop the resources and improve the communication seem, as
regards the south of Persia, far from realization.
The remarks which were previously advanced regarding the difficul­
ties which beset the British merchants in Southern Persia, and the re-