Page 585 - PERSIAN 9 1941_1947

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but construction continued and tanks were completed v/hich
had not been ready for commissioning by the 30th June,
From July to December further water lines wore laid and
houses constructed, while production continued to increase
and exports of oil rose. Up to 3l3t Decomber 7,08,000 tons
of oil hove been exported from Kuwait. December was a
record month - 1,70,000 tons were exported in 16 tankers.
In December a start was made on further survey work for
the extention of operations round Ahmadi by the construction
of quarters for all grades of staff. Houses were also in
course of construction in Shuwaikh for the senior staff and
tankage has been installed there for bulk products for the
Company’s use.
At the end of the year, the Company’s personnel
strength amounted to:-

Senior Staff 73
Junior Staff 144
Foreign Artisans 218
Labour 1193
apart from contract labour.

XII TItZ IiiP55I,--L BANK C? IRAN.
The two most important features of the bank’s
working during 1946 was (1) A continued increase in deposits
of approximately 70 lacs, which is an indication of the
continued confidence the bank enjoys in the bazaar, and
(2) a very large increase in the number of credits opened
with places abroad. Previous to 1946 merchants did not
avail themselves of these facilities to any great extent.

The withdrawal of rupee notes of :.z 500/- denomina­
tion ana over in the early part of the year gave rise tc a
little uneasiness, but when a large consignment of lower
denomination notes were received by the Political Ag=nt this
disappeared, notes of As i,030/- denomination are still being
presented from time to time and these are sent to the Reserve
Bank of India, Bombay, where, in most cases they arc paid
after the necessary formalities have been completed.
'Honey conditions have been easy during the period
under review and the bank were very seldom asked for credit
facilities. Merchants have imported almost any kind of
consumer goods that they were able to obtain and have usually
disposed of these at large profits, The chief supplying
countries were the United Kingdom and the U.S.A.
Towards the end of the year large consignments of
ylon tea v/ere imported from India,/Java and China. Since the
-ing of the price control in America and the resultant rise in prices
'-rters from America experience some difficulty in obtaining goods as
exporters were unable to sell at the contract price, This
is borne out by the continued requests the bank received
to increase the amounts of the original credits.
No bad debts were incurred by the *%nk during the
year. The bad debt incurred in 1945 of :.s 25,000/- has been
reduced to approximately As 16,000/-

Kr. Katheson, late manager of the Kuwait branch of
the Imperial Bank of Iran arrived here from Tehran on the 28th
'
February and left on the 9th Mar oh. During his stay in
Kuwait he concluded an agreement with the Ruler for an
extension of the bank's concession for a further 15 years
and also for the construction of new premises in the town*
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