Page 331 - PERSIAN 9 1931_1940

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In May the Iranian Government sent a Wireless transmitting set to
Bush ire to be installed at the aerodrome for the use of aviators passing
through Bushire air port. It had not been put up by the end of the year.
Chamber of Commerce.—The activities of this body during the year
under reference were confined to the formation of two companies for the
sale of Government sugar and piecegoods. They contemplated the forma­
tion of a third company for running some motor dhows with a view to
keeping the carrying trade between Iranian ports in the hands of a local
Company, but having found motor dhows to be useless for the purpose, the
Chamber abandoned the scheme.
Education.—The local school examinations were held in the 1st March,
two months ahead of the usual time. Fifty boys sat for the examinations
as against 60 in the previous year. 33 Government Certificates which had
been received for the students who had passed their examinations last year
were handed over to them. Co-education was introduced in one of the
Government schools. No improvement was effected in the 16 schools under
the management of the Education Department, Bushire. The Director of
Education, however, took steps to ascertain the number of houses and shops
which are “waqf” (religious endowment property) in Bushire with a view
to taking 5 per cent, of their rent in aid of local schools.
Economic Condition.—The Central Government having approved a
suggestion made by His Excellency the Governor, Bushire, the Revenue
Department advanced wheat seed and money to cultivators in Bushire and
district. Many took advantage of the opportunity and borrowed money,
and wheat seed and a larger extent of land was brought under the plough.
The rainfall which amounted to 14-69 inches ensured a good harvest and
by the end of the year the peasantry were much better off than they were in
the previous year. The lucrative business of acting as guides to smugglers
or as guards for conducting their caravans of contraband goods to places of
safety continued to be a good source of employment.
In Bushire town the Customs Department daily employed some 200,
persons either in attaching banderole labels to the Government’s loaf sugar
and packets of their tea, in putting their soft sugar into bags, or in
building an embankment to the south of the Customs quay.
Bushire Municipality.—Out of the 29 nominees voted for by the
citizens of Bushire the Central Government approved the following to be
members of the Municipality Council:—
1. Muhammad Husain Talebi.
2. Ali Akbar Dewani.
3. Mehdi Timsar.
4. Sayed Abdur Rasul Kazeruni.
5. Sayed Muhammad Syadat.
6. Sayed Muhammad Tebatebai.
7. Yusuf Ukhuat, Editor of the local weekly “The Khalij-i-Iran”.
8. Ahmad Borazjani.
9. Muhammad Khurram.
It functioned from the 15th March when it had a deficit of Rials 10,000
as the local tax-payers had been too poor to pay up their taxes. It, there­
fore, abandoned levelling the town streets, but retained a staff of 50
employees to look after the sanitation and lighting of the town. It also
maintains ten beds for the lying-in ward for the poor of the town in the
Town Infirmary, a local Doctor to look after them and to treat other poor
patients free of charge, and a local Government school.
Acting upon instructions from Tehran the Council has provided 120
sofas to be used in Husainiehs (places of no sanctity as compared with
mosques) for reciting the Qoran and saying prayers for the benefit of the
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