Page 671 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

C3 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GOLF
Monsieur Delcroix has throughout the year shown a very friendly dis-
position and willing to meet any objection raised.
The Customs has not, however, been very satisfactorily managed. The
fact that the Director cm speak but little Percian places him absolutely in
the hands of his subordinates, and there has been a great amount of fraud
and even pilfering.
The Customs which are hypothecated for the payments of British dues
do not receive anything like tne amounts that they should obtain. Firms
exporting grain can always, sharing the profits of the fraud with the Persian
Customs officiate, get their stock through by declaring but half the amount,
thus saving 23 per cent, of the Customs dues for themselves. This method
of businem is not followed by any of the British firms employed with the
result that Messrs. Wonckhaus, Messrs. Asfar and other foreign shippers
are in a position to offer half a Lira per Tagar or 6 per ton more tnan British
firms can afford to give for grain—to the detriment of British interests.
The matter is under notice of His Majesty’s Consul and the British firms
who ship grain. ' The Bank, who are largely interested since they now re­
ceive all Customs payments, are also taking up the matter.
Tdsgrapha. The Telegraph Service has been un-
satisfactory practically throughout the year.
In March, Mr. Christmas of the Indo-European Telegraph Department
arrived in Arabistan to superintend the repair of the telegraph line. He
reported that between Shakur and Nasiri 220 wooden telegraph polos had
been stolen, and that between Nasiri and Saneh 84.0 were missing, being
approximately 20 per cent, of the whole line. The state of affairs between
I.ionammerah and Ah wee, though better in detail, was no better in practice.
During the spring Mr. Christmas worked at the line and, purchasing
new poles and obtaining a few as a gift from the Shaikh, had it in good trim
up to the time he left, in July, when gradually the old state of affairs returned,
poles were stolen, officials slack, and by the end of the year the line out of
working order once more.
In the month of October the local British firms made a joint complaint
to His Majesty’s Consul stating that, since the Italian-Turkish \7ar, they
had hot been able to make use of the Basrah line as the Turks would not
accept messages in code and that, since the local line was quite unreliable,
they were severely handicapped in their business. The traffic between Arab­
istan and Bushire being equally affected, I forwarded this letter to the
Resident making certain suggestions and requesting that the Minister might
be approached on the subject. I trust that this representation will result in
a line which will work satisfactorily, for the present state of affairs entails
much loss to the local British firms who are unable to receive their buying
rates, and the Bank is equally handicapped with reference to exchange.
The work of the British Post Office has steadily augmented. In 1910,
the value of 2.285 money orders issued
Port*.
was Rs. 1,83,485; in 19il, this amount
has risen to 4,164 orders aggregating Rs. 2,22,414; registered articles have
risen from 2,989 to 3,513 and parcels Fi
rom 1,718 to 3,034, while there has been
a corresponding increase in the number of letters received and issued. Owing
to the fact that there is only one post day per week and the traffic comes in at
the end of the week, the work has become too great for a single postmaster
to cope with.
In the earlier part of the year the firm of Messrs. Lloyd Scott & Co.,
BrituE Interest*. Agents for the Anglo-Persian Oil
v e* " i „, 'Company, amalgamated with Messrs.
t. btricx & uo., the well-known Gulf shipping firm, with its Gulf offices
at Basrah, and formed the firm of Messrs. Stride, Scott & Co.
The Company opened dealings as general merchants and grain exporters
as well as being Agents for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company? They took a