Page 299 - PERSIAN 2C 1890_1899_Neat
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                residency  AND  MASKAT POLITICAL AGENCY POlt THE YEAR 1893-96.  5


                                       5.—EL HAS A.
               Tl O Governor of El Hasa with the object of gaining credit with his
                inc t undertook an expedition for the purpose of establishing a
            Governm and profitable Turkish control over the Ajrnan, Al Murrah and
            m°r0      yrlio had hitherto paid only a nominal tax. The Ajman while
            °i         demands pleaded their inability to pay without recovery of their
            admitt      c(1 l)v tlie ^[utcvr and seized by Mahomed Ibn Rashid. The
            property       *Iy attacked* the Muteyr with the help of the Ajraanand other
            tribes IlcaPtur*^5 some of tlieir animals- Eo was tlien summoned to Busrah,
                            was  active in encouraging the hostile attitude taken by
            ^‘kWasim^^n11 Mahomed Tliani in support of the Al bin Ali resistence
            to the Bahrain chief which has already been noticed.
                                 C.—PERSIAN ARABISTAN.
                Tlic Kizam-cs-Sultaneh was appointed to the Governor-Generalship in
            March and held the office throughout the year.
                Notwithstanding that the harvest was favourable, one of the earlier mea­
            sures of the year was the imposition of an embargo on the export of grain. The
            notice mven'of the enforcement of this vexatious prohibition was too short for
            the reasonable requirements of trade operations, the local conditions necessita­
            ting arrangements considerably in advance, for the purchase and transport of
            ormn, the^securing of freight and other matters, an extension of it was there­
            fore, though with some difficulty, obtained.
                The proceedings in connection with this obnoxious measure were uncer­
            tain and irregular and were so devised as to entail the maximum of restriction
            oa straightforward foreign trade while failing in an effective realisation of the
            ostensible object, the retention of the grain in the country. It wss evaded by
            the conveyance in native craft of grain to Busrah, whence it could readily be
            exported; the transit, overland from the Howcizah district to the river at
            Busrah was open, and shipment from the port of Mashur which taps the Ram
            Hormuz district was unrestrained. The sale of their produce to the best
            advantage by the people on the lower Karun was however no doubt to some
            exteut prevented, and the Shaikh of Mohammerah and the Arabs under him
            complained of the difficulty of meeting their taxes.
                Complete uncertainty prevailed as to the pvobable duration of the embargo,
            the indication being that it was governed by arbitrary and interested consider­
            ation, and after a while indeed that its relaxation would depend on pecuniary ar­
            rangements wit lithe authorities. Foreign merchants accordingly continued their
            purchase of wheat in the district; but this obviously would not suit the projects
            for forciug the merchants into a permanent arrangement pecuniarily advanta­
            geous to those interested, and purchases as well as the collection of purchased
            slocks and their removal for storage were prohibited. In January there  was an
            open though still quite irregular relaxation, the Governor-General permitting
            the export of certain stocks, at the same moment that the Central Government
            proposed to admit it, on condition that no fresh purchases should be made till the
            next crop should he assured. The facts that the Karguzar, Agent of the Foreign
            Office, repudiated the authority of the Governor-General, while the Shaikh Gov­
            ernor of ‘NIohammemh claimed to levy a gain on his own account the duty which
             bad already been paid to the Governor-General, shows the utter confusion and
            conflict of authority in all the irregular proceedings in this connection. The
             Central Government overruled both these obstructors. In March theGovernor-
             beneral again capriciously stopped export, though by that time there could
            nardly be a doubt of the abundance of the  approaching harvest, aud finally
            Knn
                                  #
             oon alter native and foreign merchants were freely shipping and the embargo
            ^ras tacitly at an end, though, as far as official notification is concerned,°it
            remained in full force as originally promulgated.
            f *4irae attemP}to °Petl UP an(1 improve the safety of trade routes inland
              m tbe upper Karun and Diz rivers was made; the results however by no
            fesa-ns camcuP *° hopes founded on the Nizam-es-Sukaneh’s earlier pro-


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