Page 193 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

AND THE MASKAT POLITICAL AGENCY EOIt THE YEAR 1907-1908. 9
Even with his sowar escort., the Resident travelling by this route
experienced much annoyance; every man’s hand seemed to be against his
neighbour ; no one dared stay abroad after dark ; peasants who formerly kept
transport animals for hire have sold them; ground has gone out of cultivation
as there is no security for the gathering of the crop and the country generally
is at the mercy of the most lawless element of the peasant population*
The ordinary route via Kazoroon though not as a rule unsafe for
Europeans was nevertheless insecure for posts and caravans throughout the year.
So much so that from timo to time caravan trallic was brought to an absolute
standstill.
At one time six different posts were held up between Eushire and Shiraz
and there was no letter communication between the two towns for five weeks.
In fact during the past two years no less than 15 posts have been robbed
between Bushire and Ispahan and as yet nothing has beon recovered nor any
compensation paid to parties who have suffored loss.
Having regard to these conditions of chronic chaos which from time to
time seem to have driven individual traders to desperation and even caused
Messrs. D. Sassoon, in February 1908, to instruct their Agents to cease taking
indents, it i9an apparently paradoxical fact that during the year under review
there has been no falling oft in revenue at the Customs house at Bushire ! This
may be due in some degree to the exercise of greater severity in the interpre­
tation of the Customs Kcglement to which I have previously alluded and also
to a heavy export of opium, but the real position cannot fail to become
apparent from the figures of the coming year, during which there will surely
be a tremendous falling off in the receipts. As it is, the back wash of orders
sent home long ago is lyiug uncleared in the Customs, and no new indents
are going forward.
This question is a periodical source of dissension at Bushire, the two routes The choice of
being controlled by rival Khans who are continually tryiug to wrest the luora- muhfre^nd611
tive privilege from each other’s enjoyment. During the past year the question Eora^joon.
has been the subject of continual wire-pulling among the interested parties,
and much annoyauce has resulted therefrom to traders engaged in the forward­
ing business. There can be no question as to which route is most advantage­
ous to commerce generally, but strong vested interests are brought to bear
which never allow the question to rest on its merits for any length of timo.
In the case of the land route via Ahmedi, the forwarding agent concerned
is able personally to supervise the despatch and receipt of his consignments and
the caravan starts from or arrives at the merchant’s door under his immediate
supervision without any “ break of gauge ” en route.
In>the case of tho Shief or harbour route, after delivery to the muleteer
the goods have to be transported by boat a distance of 10 miles across the
harbour by an entirely independent agency, and are then dumped upon the
strand at Shief, where they often remain for weeks lying exposed to the ele­
ments while the muleteers carry them in driblets up the road. Sometimes a
muleteer will contract, unknown to his individual clients, for the conveyance
of two or three consignments at a time and having got the loads to Shief by
boat he starts up the road with a modicum of each consignment and repeats
this process until he accumulates all the loads at Knzeroon, where he carries
out the some procedure again between there and Shiraz. Not only is the Shief
route open to this latter objection, but it is obvious that during transport across
the harbour and detention at Shief there is nothing whatever to prevent bales
being tapped and pilfered with impunity, it being impossible to fix the respon­
sibility for shortages upon any particular agency.
The result is that the Shief route is much more popular with the dishonest
muleteer or unscrupulous forwarding agent while the Ahmedi route is clearly
to the advantage of trade gouerally. Apart from this the two routes lie, as
before mentioned, in the district of the rival Khans of Angali and Chahkuta
and every change of Governor means a renewal of bribery and corruption on
the part of one or both.