Page 507 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1910. 13
who remained in charge till the end of the year. Monsieur Degraeve waa
Assistant Dircclor from the commencement of the year until Monsieur Con­
stant’s arrival when he replaced the latter at Bandar Abbas.
Relations between the British merchants and the Customs authorities
have been in the main very friendly during the year. In opposing an in­
creased tax on certain kinds of tea, and on obtaining a reduction of 50 per
cent, on the export duty of wheat and barley, the Provincial Director co­
operated heartily with the merchants. The latter reform, it may be noted,
was eventually carried out by the Administrator General of Customs in
Tehran on his own responsibility when he perceived the hopelessness of wait­
ing for action on the part of the Minister of Finance. The embargo on the
'export of grain was similarly removed in April, the result of the two
measures coupled with a good crop, being a revival of the export trade in
cereals.
The question of the repair and rebuilding of the actual Customs premises
was the subject of a good deal of discussion between the Director, the mcr-
chants and the Consulate-General.
In the course of their efforts to put down smuggling, the Customs Depart­
ment met with considerable opposition during the year from the tribal chiefs
of Tangistan and Dashti, reprisals by the latter going so far as the murder
of the Customs Mudirs within their jurisdiction and a threatened attack on
Bushire. I-Iis Excellency the Darya Begi, when appealed to by the Director
to punish the offenders, replied that the tribal levies of the outlying country,
which were the only troops at his disposal, although willing to restore order in
Lineah and Bandar Abbas, would not fight their neighbours the Tangistanis.
The Darya Besri's statement is quite true and troops from up-country are badly
needed. ‘ The Customs posts in Dashti and Tangistan were accordingly closed,
and all export and import from and to the ports of these districts prohibited.
Smuggling throuch all the petty ports along the coast line is now a regularly
organised indiistrv. and, with the totally inadequate resources at their com­
mand, it is very difficult for the local authorities to cope with it.
Captain C. B. McConaghy held the post of Chief Quarantine Medical
Pfficer in the Persian Gulf throughout
Quarantine tnj Residency HospitaL
the year.

MEMORANDA BY CAPTAIN McCONAGHY ON THE WORKING OF
THE QUARANTINE ADMINISTRATION AND OF THE RESI­
DENCY HOSPITAL ARE ATTACHED. (APPENDIX I.)
Duzkirc Adjuman.—The activities of the Local Anjuman or Town Coun­
cil of Bushire were confined during the
Loco] Government.
first half of the year under report to the
intrigues of its various members against one another notably those of the no­
torious Mirza Hussein, until lately Dragoman of the German Consulate. This
individual, having proclaimed that he had severed all connection with that
Consulate suoxeded, at the beginning of the year, in getting himself elected
as one of the candidates for the two seats allotted to the Gulf Ports in the
Tehran Medjhss, the other being one Mirza Ali Kazeruni, a disreputable petty
merchant and a fraudulent bankrupt. Both individuals, however, were de­
nounced as having obtained their election by chicanery and neither of them
proceeded to Tehran. Mirza Hussein has since been re-appointed German
Consulate Mirza, and the Anjuman in question has ceased to exist
u Anjuman-i-Baladiyeh.—A new Anjuman however, known as the
An]uman-i-Baladiyeh ” or Municipal Council, came into existence during The
year. Under the direction of the Governor, elections for this body (20 mem­
bers) were held in the first week of August. Its strength and activities in
municipal matters have varied from time to time. At one period its numbers
dwindled to two members. The body cannot be said to be popular. Its mea­
sures necessitate the provision of funds, which, in turn, involves the levy of
new taxes which are naturally distasteful to the people. The Council began