Page 299 - PERSIAN 4 1890_1899

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residency AND MASKAT POLITICAL AGENCY POlt THE YEAR 1893-96. 5

5.—EL HAS A.
Tl O Governor of El Hasa with the object of gaining credit with his
inc t undertook an expedition for the purpose of establishing a
Governm and profitable Turkish control over the Ajrnan, Al Murrah and
m°r0 yrlio had hitherto paid only a nominal tax. The Ajman while
°i demands pleaded their inability to pay without recovery of their
admitt c(1 l)v tlie ^[utcvr and seized by Mahomed Ibn Rashid. The
property *Iy attacked* the Muteyr with the help of the Ajraanand other
tribes IlcaPtur*^5 some of tlieir animals- Eo was tlien summoned to Busrah,
was active in encouraging the hostile attitude taken by
^‘kWasim^^n11 Mahomed Tliani in support of the Al bin Ali resistence
to the Bahrain chief which has already been noticed.
C.—PERSIAN ARABISTAN.
Tlic Kizam-cs-Sultaneh was appointed to the Governor-Generalship in
March and held the office throughout the year.
Notwithstanding that the harvest was favourable, one of the earlier mea­
sures of the year was the imposition of an embargo on the export of grain. The
notice mven'of the enforcement of this vexatious prohibition was too short for
the reasonable requirements of trade operations, the local conditions necessita­
ting arrangements considerably in advance, for the purchase and transport of
ormn, the^securing of freight and other matters, an extension of it was there­
fore, though with some difficulty, obtained.
The proceedings in connection with this obnoxious measure were uncer­
tain and irregular and were so devised as to entail the maximum of restriction
oa straightforward foreign trade while failing in an effective realisation of the
ostensible object, the retention of the grain in the country. It wss evaded by
the conveyance in native craft of grain to Busrah, whence it could readily be
exported; the transit, overland from the Howcizah district to the river at
Busrah was open, and shipment from the port of Mashur which taps the Ram
Hormuz district was unrestrained. The sale of their produce to the best
advantage by the people on the lower Karun was however no doubt to some
exteut prevented, and the Shaikh of Mohammerah and the Arabs under him
complained of the difficulty of meeting their taxes.
Complete uncertainty prevailed as to the pvobable duration of the embargo,
the indication being that it was governed by arbitrary and interested consider­
ation, and after a while indeed that its relaxation would depend on pecuniary ar­
rangements wit lithe authorities. Foreign merchants accordingly continued their
purchase of wheat in the district; but this obviously would not suit the projects
for forciug the merchants into a permanent arrangement pecuniarily advanta­
geous to those interested, and purchases as well as the collection of purchased
slocks and their removal for storage were prohibited. In January there was an
open though still quite irregular relaxation, the Governor-General permitting
the export of certain stocks, at the same moment that the Central Government
proposed to admit it, on condition that no fresh purchases should be made till the
next crop should he assured. The facts that the Karguzar, Agent of the Foreign
Office, repudiated the authority of the Governor-General, while the Shaikh Gov­
ernor of ‘NIohammemh claimed to levy a gain on his own account the duty which
bad already been paid to the Governor-General, shows the utter confusion and
conflict of authority in all the irregular proceedings in this connection. The
Central Government overruled both these obstructors. In March theGovernor-
beneral again capriciously stopped export, though by that time there could
nardly be a doubt of the abundance of the approaching harvest, aud finally
Knn
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oon alter native and foreign merchants were freely shipping and the embargo
^ras tacitly at an end, though, as far as official notification is concerned,°it
remained in full force as originally promulgated.
f *4irae attemP}to °Petl UP an(1 improve the safety of trade routes inland
m tbe upper Karun and Diz rivers was made; the results however by no
fesa-ns camcuP *° hopes founded on the Nizam-es-Sukaneh’s earlier pro-

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