Page 672 - PERSIAN 9 1941_1947

4.

(d) Post8 and Tele*jraph8,
(i) The British Indian Postal Administration ran the
Kuwait Post Office until 15th August, after which it was taken
over by the Pakistan Government.
The service is inadequate for the growing needs of the
town and the Oil Company and the need for improvement is accutely
town and the Oil Company
felt. The land telegraph line'tq Basra worked satisfactorily
apart from occassional interruptions due to breakdowns on the
line resulting in considerable inconvenience to the public
(ii) Messrs Cable and Vireles3 have continued to operate
their wireless telegraph station efficiently.

On the 1st May Hr. C.G. Gott of Cable and Wireless
Limited si gned an agreement with the Shaikh granting a concession
to Messrs Cable and ’"ireless Limited for a period oT 20 years
to establish, maintain, and operate telecommunication services
between Kuwait and the outside world.
From July 1st Messrs Cable and Wireless started
direct wireless conraunication between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Traffic for Saudi Arabia before July was routed via Bahrain.

The automatic telephone system run by Cable and
Wireless now serves 145 subscribers but there are a large number
of applications for new connections. The connections will be
made when the necessary apparatus is received.

(9) ?TNICIPALITY.
His Hinniess personally directed the affairs of the
Municipality during the period under review.
The Municipality accounts for the Islamic ye?x ending
the 25th November, 194o showed that expenditure exceeded income
by 60,000 rupees.
(f) About 350 people, most of then Kuwaities of Persian
origin, left for th9 Haj m 1947. About 100 pilgrims proceeded
on camels and the rest performed the journey either by lorry or
by car. Charges were from fc500/- to £600/- for those travelling
on camel back, and te2,000/- per seat by saloon car and tel,000/-
per seat by lorry or station waggon. The above charges include
the pilgrim tax of k653/8/-per person, from which only pilgrims
by camel are exempt.
In March and April a number of would-be pilgrims
arrived here from India. They had no visas or endorsements for
Saudi Arabia and requested that their passoorts be made vaild for
that country. This wa3 refused but some attempted to proceed
without visas to Saudi Arabia and were turned back at Qariya.

(g) Pearling,
Like the previous year the pearling season was divided
into two halves on account of Hamadhan, but unlike last year the