Page 240 - PERSIAN 4 1890_1899

10 ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON THE TKRSIAN GULP POLITIOAL

S.8. Shu than maungcd by Messrs. Lynch on behalf of the Porsian Government
carried goods for Shuster. The buildings for the Company, which had bo long
bcon the subject of negotiation, have been completed and, occupied.

9.—FARS AND PERSIAN COAST.
His Royal Highness Rukn-ud-Powlah, brother of His Majesty the 8hah
who had been appointed Governor-Genoral of Pars in March 1894, held this high
office throughout the year. The Kawam-ul-Mulk had at tho same time been
given the subordinate but still very important Governorship of Busliire and
the Gulf ports. His Excellency did not, however, arrive at Bushiro, the head­
quarters of bis charge, till the middle of July, the duties in the interval being
carried on by Haji Mirza Abdullah Khan.
The beginning of the year saw a revival of the vexatious and useless
embargo on the export of wheat. The action taken was sudden ; it was unex­
pected also in view of tho fact that tho previously existing embargo had only
been removed three months before ; indeed, everything connected with this mis­
chievous measure was irregular, capricious, and uncertain. Difficulties at once
arose in regard to stocks for export already purchased or contracted for, and
were cot arranged without much trouble. British merchants protested and
the newly appointed Governor, immediately on his arrival, sought our support
in representations at Tehran against the measure on the ground of its use­
lessness as regards its ostensible object—the relief of scarcity at Shiraz,—
which the miserable state of the road and the cost of transport practically
barred, and the injury to the producers in view of the abundant harvest
in the coast districts. A certain remedy for the situation after Persian
methods was soon found in an extensive evasion of the edict, considerable
shipments being made with very transparent secrecy, with the result that
export to the value of over £21,000 was effected during a year over three-
fourths of which the embargo rested. So good a harvest would, however,
doubtless have produced a heavier export under normal conditions, as the un­
certainty and vexatious demands to which the trade was liable could not but
operate to materially restrict it.
In February 1895 a stricter enforcement of the passport system was noti­
fied by the Persian Government, under which foreigners, not provided with
passports duly vised by Agents of the Government abroad, on entering the
country from the sea board, are required to have them visdd by the passport
clerks, as on other frontiers, upon payment of fixed fees.
Dengue fever, which had not for very many years troubled these regions,
made its appearance at Bushire during the summer.
Shiraz again suffered from many troubles, the result of natural causes
aggravated by misrule; disorder, violence, and crime, in which the Persian
troops or Sirbazes were said to have a Bhare, were rife in and about the city at
various times, and there was much discontent and suffering. His Royal High­
ness the Rukn-ud-Dowlah did not arrive at Shiraz to assume the personal
control of affaire till more than four months after bis appointment to the
Governor-Generalship, and the elements of confusion thus received encourage­
ment. Towards the close of the year, the uncertainty as to the prospects of the
re-appointment of His Royal Highness, and the future of the Government, pro­
duced their usual ill-effects.
The nomad tribes, unchecked by any firm control, again resorted to violence
and plunder, and added to the general sense of fear and insecurity. Two
members of the Kashkai tribe were executed at Sliiraz, possibly rather as an
arbitrary measure of severity than an act of firm justice.