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10      ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON THE TKRSIAN GULP POLITIOAL

                 S.8. Shu than maungcd by Messrs. Lynch on behalf of the Porsian Government
                 carried goods for Shuster. The buildings for the Company, which had bo long
                 bcon the subject of negotiation, have been completed and, occupied.


                                     9.—FARS AND PERSIAN COAST.
                     His Royal Highness Rukn-ud-Powlah, brother of His Majesty the 8hah
                 who had been appointed Governor-Genoral of Pars in March 1894, held this high
                 office throughout the year. The Kawam-ul-Mulk had at tho same time been
                 given the subordinate but still very important Governorship of Busliire and
                 the Gulf ports. His Excellency did not, however, arrive at Bushiro, the head­
                  quarters of bis charge, till the middle of July, the duties in the interval being
                 carried on by Haji Mirza Abdullah Khan.
                     The beginning of the year saw a revival of the vexatious and useless
                 embargo on the export of wheat. The action taken was sudden ; it was unex­
                 pected also in view of tho fact that tho previously existing embargo had only
                 been removed three months before ; indeed, everything connected with this mis­
                 chievous measure was irregular, capricious, and uncertain. Difficulties at once
                 arose in regard to stocks for export already purchased or contracted for, and
                 were cot arranged without much trouble. British merchants protested and
                 the newly appointed Governor, immediately on his arrival, sought our support
                 in representations at Tehran against the measure on the ground of its use­
                 lessness as regards its ostensible object—the relief of scarcity at Shiraz,—
                 which the miserable state of the road and the cost of transport practically
                 barred, and the injury to the producers in view of the abundant harvest
                 in the coast districts. A certain remedy for the situation after Persian
                 methods was soon found in an extensive evasion of the edict, considerable
                 shipments being made with very transparent secrecy, with the result that
                 export to the value of over £21,000 was effected during a year over three-
                 fourths of which the embargo rested. So good a harvest would, however,
                 doubtless have produced a heavier export under normal conditions, as the un­
                  certainty and vexatious demands to which the trade was liable could not but
                  operate to materially restrict it.
                      In February 1895 a stricter enforcement of the passport system was noti­
                  fied by the Persian Government, under which foreigners, not provided with
                  passports duly vised by Agents of the Government abroad, on entering the
                  country from the sea board, are required to have them visdd by the passport
                  clerks, as on other frontiers, upon payment of fixed fees.
                      Dengue fever, which had not for very many years troubled these regions,
                  made its appearance at Bushire during the summer.
                      Shiraz again suffered from many troubles, the result of natural causes
                  aggravated by misrule; disorder, violence, and crime, in which the Persian
                  troops or Sirbazes were said to have a Bhare, were rife in and about the city at
                  various times, and there was much discontent and suffering. His Royal High­
                  ness the Rukn-ud-Dowlah did not arrive at Shiraz to assume the personal
                  control of affaire till more than four months after bis appointment to the
                  Governor-Generalship, and the elements of confusion thus received encourage­
                  ment. Towards the close of the year, the uncertainty as to the prospects of the
                  re-appointment of His Royal Highness, and the future of the Government, pro­
                  duced their usual ill-effects.
                      The nomad tribes, unchecked by any firm control, again resorted to violence
                  and plunder, and added to the general sense of fear and insecurity. Two
                  members of the Kashkai tribe were executed at Sliiraz, possibly rather   as an
                  arbitrary measure of severity than an act of firm justice.
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