Page 145 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

CHAPTER I.
Internal affairs.
I.—Local Governors and Foreign Office Agents, Famines, etc., 1854—70.
A connected account of the internal affairs of Persia from 1854 101870,
it is not easy to gather from our records. We find only casual references to
local Governors and their acts, mainly directed against the British, which does
not help us to link together the series of local Governors and their internal
administrative acts. The ancient hereditary Chiefs or Sheikhs of Bushire, who
played an important part in Bushire politics, for nearly a century* from 1750
1850disappear from the sceneduring this
ing Persia and the Persian Gulf, 1600-1800, and period. 1 llClT place Was taken by Persian
tht Precis of Persian Gui/affnm, /5o/-/J5j. Governors, who while seeking during the
short tenure of their office mainly personal aggrandizement, placed every
obstruction possible in the progress of British and other foreign enterprise
and influence on the coast. In addition to the local Governors, there arises into
prominence now at Bushire and Bandar Abbas a Persian officer called Kargusar,
the Foreign Office Agent, whose principal functions were to collect customs
on foreign trade, to settle questions arising between Persian subjects and
foreigners, to help or rather checkmate foreign trade by every means in his
power ; in fact to protect Persian interests against foreign influence. It was to
this Foreign Office Agent that the Persian Government insisted on the Resident
at Bushire communicating on local questions in which the British were concerned,
t Referred to in the correspondence of 180S, and in a lettcrf addressed on 3rd January
Proceedings Political A., July 1868, Nos. 163*170. i860 by Sir Henry Rawlinson to Captain
Political A., November ifc68, Nos. 115*117. Felix Jones, the latter was directed to
adopt this course. These instructions were, as we shall see below, rescinded in
1868 (paragraph 560 post), as productive of great inconvenience and delay.
2. One striking feature of the internal history of the Persian coast is the
frequency with which seasons of drought occur, followed by famines on a small
or large scale, and resulting in prohibition of exportation of grain. These prohi­
bitions were pressed with great vigour against foreigners, while the Persians allowed
much laxity in their enforcement to the benefit of Persian dealers and to the
detriment of foreign grain merchants. We find complaints made by British
merchants on these grounds in the years 1863, 1866 and 1868. The great
famine of 1870-72 brought matters to a climax (see section iv, §§ 5-14 below).
II.—Local Governors : places on the Persian littoral, 1872—74.
3. The following statement, taken from the Persian Gulf Administration
Report for 1875-76 with a few additions from those for 1873-74 and 1S74-75,
contains a list of places on the Persian Coast from Mashur to Bandar Abbas,
and shows the Chiefs and Governments under which they are placed. [The
principal places are italicized.]

Under what
Names of places. Names of Chiefs.
Government.
1. Khor Marhoar Enter from Khor Moosa, creek is 50 miles
long to Mashoor. 1
a. Ra« Bahrakkan beginning of Fresh water flows to Zeydoon. From the >Shuster.
I
Khor Hindiah. mouth of the creek to Htndian is ao miles. J
3. Shah Abdulla
4. Bandar Hamad
5. Deflam ...
•Abdulla Khan.
6. Ras Soolatam Uninhabited
•Behbehao.
7. Khor*ul*Abd Do.
8. Imam Hassan
9. Jebl Baug Inhabited. Half under Abdullah Khan and
half Khan Alee, who is under tho Dushiro
Government.
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