Page 546 - PERSIAN 4 1899_1905

4 ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON THE PER8IAN GOLF POLITICAL
flag and guard thore haB not been recognised by HiB Majesty’s Government,
further discussion of this point lias for tho present been hold in aboynnoo.
The long expeoted " Rfcglemcnt Douanicr” was authoritatively issued and
oamo into force on tho 1st September 1904. This document constitutes tho
working regulations of the Persian Customs Administration as conducted under
Belgian management, and was provided for by the Article 5 of the Anglo-
Poreian Declaration of 9th February 1903. Attached to the llbglemcnfc is a
list of tho places at whioh Customs posts aro authorised, and at tho head of this
list it is set forth that tho said list can only be departed from by special Reso­
lutions of tho Ministry of Customs, winch must, be duly notifiod to tho British
Legation.
Prom the date of tho execution of the Declaration of Fobruary 1903 up to
the present time, the Customs Administration had been guided in their work by
a scries of temporary rules issued from time to time from the Central Office
and had been allowed considerable scope for the exercise of discretion and for
applying the rules od elastic lines. Now, however, that tho formal R&glement
has been issued, there is little further room for ihe exercise of any such discre­
tion and the rigorous enforcement of its multitudinous provisions (many of them
quite unsuited to Gulf conditions) has been the cause of a good deal of difficulty
and friction, which, however, it is hoped will gradually tubdde if those Articles
that are found to work specially hardly can be modified in due course.
So much fooling has been caused by the strict application of certain Articles
that towards tho close of the year the Persian mercantile community seem
inclined to show active opposition to tleir enforcement and to contemplate, by
the way of protest, the total suspension of their trading operations until their
grievances are heard. As the greater part of the business of this community is
with Bombay, such a denouement could not but have a very injurious effect
upon our own commercial interests, and every effort is being made to prevent
the incidence of a complete deadlock.
Since ♦hs issue of the R&glcment, serious difficulties have several times
arisen with the Customs authorities at various Gulf ports in connection with
mails for the British Post Offices. In their zealous endeavours to carry out the
letter of the regulations punctiliously, local Customs officials have seemed
inclined at times to place the most strained interpretation on some of the
Articles of the Rfcglcment, and in doing so have more than once been led into
taking arbitrary action which, if it did not fortunately bring about any specially
untoward result, produced temporary situations of considerable local delicacy,
pending adjustment by higher authority.
In this connection I would chiefly allude to cases of interference with mail
bags in transit
For instance, at Bush ire on 1st December 1904, the British parcel mail bags
instead of being taken as usual direct to the British Post Office were forcibly
seized by the Customs authorities and held up for a week until the matter had
arrived at a settlement through His Majesty’s .Legation Similar attempts were
also made at Lringah and Mohammerab to gain possession, of the mail bags on
t'leir being landed, and at Bunder Abbas four bags w ere actually seized and
only released after being opened at the Custom House.
Another connection in which the Customs authorities seem to have formed
erroneous ideas of their powers under the -Rfeglemcnt has been that of arms
and ammunition in transit and destined for other than Persian, ports. Thus
i4 January, although a precisely paraUel case had occurred earlier in the year
(on which occasion the Resident and Consul-General had refused to acquiesce
in the delivery to the Customs authorities by the Captain of a British Steamer
of certain arms carried by passengers proceeding to Koweit) the Director-
General of Customs at Bushire called upon the commander of 8. 8. GoalpQJ**
to deliver to him certain arms and ammunition belonging to a party of Turkish
Regulars proceeding on relief from A1 Hassa cid Bahrein and Bushire to
Bossorah. In spite of several exchanges of views between the Director-General
and the Residency, tho former insisted on his rLjht to seize and confiscate the
anna, and in the end—appeal having been made to the British Consulste-Gensral
by die Turkish Vice CqzhuI — the-Resident saw no other course open toliimth**