Page 340 - PERSIAN 9 1941_1947

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Tho Mund River project at the end of the year
v/as still at a stage of preliminary examination though
a consulting engineer of the firm of Sir Alexander Gibb

had produced a useful technical report on the basis of
material supplied by this Consulate-General, This however
revealed the considerable practical difficulties, technical,
financial, and administrative, in the way of the realisation
of the project.

(c) Tea, Sugar, and Piecegoods.
There has been no appreciable change in the
method or, rather, lack of method, of rationing these
monopoly goods by the Persian Government during the year

under review. Cloth was only issued once, in the beginning
of the year, at the rate of 3 metres per head and no. more
was issued until the end of the year in spite of several

petitions to the authorities. Sugar and tea were issued
in the usual way to town inhabitants and to all outside
districts through the agents of Khans, Very little of
these allotments reached the peasants, the greater part

being sold by the Khans in the black market at high rates,
(d) Agriculture.
The harvest was very poor owing to lack of
rain. Rain, however, fell heavily towards the end of the

year enabling cultivators to engage in record sowings
made possible by the timely arrival of 800 tons of excellent
seed wheat supplied by the Government of India, This was
the second year in succession in which the Government of
India had come to the rescue by providing seed wheat.

There is every hope of a bumper crop which will relieve all
anxiety for the bread supplies of the Shahristan during the
coming year. The date crop was good but as more transport

was available the crop reached a wide market and local
prices increased accordingly.