Page 116 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

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administration report op the terstan gulf
Government, and the flag of the Trucia! Arabs unceremoniously hauled down. It
proved, as was expected that neither the Shaikh nor the third concessionaire had
any idea of the precise terms of the contract entered into by Hassan Samaiyeh •
and on hearing them the former immediately indited a letter to Hassan cancelling
the concession, while Esa bin Abdul Latif at the same time wrote repudiating the
contract entered into with Herr Wonckhaus, on the ground that he had not been in
any way consulted before the fact.
The complaint of the Shaikh to the Residency asking for the support of
Government in effecting the annulment of this undesirable contract, and the
appeal of Hassan Samaiych, as a British protected person, against the Shaikhs
arbitrary action, were duly referred to Government for orders.
Until they were received .Shaikh Sugar was advised to take no further action
towards making g.-od his intentions and the matter remained at this stage until
the close of the year, the views of His Majesty’s Government not having yet been
received.
Mr. Hatinouglou, the Levantine Greek representing the “ Sponge Exploration
Syndicate Limited 55 of London, mentioned
Sponge Exploration Syndicate.
on page 17 of last year’s report, was rein­
forced in June, as expected, by a party of 7 Greek divers from the Mediterranean
and with them conducted diving operations in the vicinity of Hormuz, Larak, and
Kkarag Islands ; hut apparently with 'indifferent success.
He indeed professed to have found sponges of fine quality, especially off Kharag,
but after a short time his divers fell out with one another and with him. and raore-
over proved unable u» work in the great heat of the Gulf summer. He accordingly
sent them home during August and followed himself at the end of that month
threatening to return with more in three months’ rime. He had not done so up to
the close of the year, but from letters written by him to friends at Bushire it
appeared that he w as then in London and that his Syndicate, which only started
with a modest capital of £1,000, is trying to enlist more capital, and the sympa­
thies oi IBs Majesty’s Government in their venture.
The report, of Doctor Theodore Thomson
Poblic Health Qaaramziif. anticipated in last year’s review was re­
ceived in due course.
He failed to see the necessity or advantage of the formation of any international
detention station at Hen jam or other port in the southern portion of the Gulf, but
while holding that the ports below Bunder Abbas on the Mekran Coast, owing to
the absence of free communication with the north and the thinly populated and
arid character of the hinterland, actually constituted little or no source of danger,
he was on the other hand of opinion that the ports in the northern portion of the
Gulf needed to be strongly and effectively heW. He further made several recom­
mendations for the improvement of the existing quarantine stations, which arc now
under consideration with a view to being carried into effect as far as local circum­
stances permit
The Persian Government having notified its acceptance of the provisions of the
Paris International Sanitary Convention of 1903 in this regard the period of
quarantine detention imposed upon ships hailing from plague infected ports was
reduced from 10 to 5 days w ith effect from March 6th. 1907.
Owing to the jealously vigilant and captious attitude assumed by foreign
representatives and nationalists towards the working arrangements of the Quaranune
Service as administered by the British Residency Surgeon, it has been found
advisable during the past year to make several concessions to their suscepti­
bilities. Thus the British Quarantine Medical Officers now fly the Persian Flag
while on duty in harbour instead of the Union Jack as heretofore; the Persian
or French languages are used exclusively for all correspondence and }nte™£aJs?
instead of English, while the Residency Surgeon deals direct, qua Persian Official,
with the President of the Sanitaiy Council at Tehran in all matters connected witn
^ ^Although bv these means it has been possible to a great extent to disarm un-

and administering Persian Gulf Quarantine Administration will continue p
an increasingly difficult and delicate one.