Page 544 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

20 ANNUAL REPORr OP THE PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL RESIDENCY
Work knd already commenced on the Kermnn-Saidabad section in March
and by tho end of that month motor-cars were driven from Kerman to
nbad and back without much difficulty. The Saidabad-Hajiabad section wl%
completed in September, when it becamo possiblo to drive from Kerman u
Hnjiabad (210 miles) and back within throe days. • Tho construction of tho road
was placed under the supervision of Lieutenant (now Major) Lowis, 0.1?
I.A.R.O., late of Burma Public Works Department. *»
The construction of this new line was carried by tho late Mr. E. J. BW
man, Indo-European Telegraph Depart
Binder Abbai'Kcrmao Tolcgraph Lino. ment, into Kerman territory near Danl^
abad towards the end of February, Kerman being reached on 30th April.
The line was opened to the public on 16th June. During the same month &
branch line from Baft'to Saidabad was sanctioned and commenced, Saidabad
being reached in July The construction .of this extension was for some obscur®
reason regarded by the Tehran Government as a grievance against the British
and South Persia Rifles, and after it was completed permission for the public
to make use of it was more than once withdrawn.
In April the Government of India decided that the local situation had
improved sufficiently for permission to
Rotors of British subjects to Kerman.
be granted to certain British ladies to
join their husbands at Kerman. Accordingly Mrs. Lorimer, wife of Ha
Majesty’s Consul, Mrs. Taylor, wife of the Manager, Imperial Bank of
Persia, and Mrs. Merrill travelled up under South Persia Rifles escort, arriving
without mishap on 2-Sth May. In December Dr. and Mrs. Dodson, C. M. 8,
and child, and Dr. (Miss) Westlake, C. M. S., were permitted to proceed to
Kerman, which they reached shortly before Xmas.
Work at the Kerman office was carried on, often under extreme pressure^
throughout the year, by an incomplete
Indo-European Tdograpb Department.
staff under Mr. J. P M ay, Superintendent,
and Mr. G. P. Nash, Officer-in-Charge. The Department suffered a severe loss
by the death from acute malaria of Mr. E. J. Blackman at Saidabad on 29th
September.
Mr. H. L. G. Taylor was Manager of the Imperial Bank of Persia durfc*
the year under report. . Much additional
Impori&l Bank of Persia,
work has been thrown on the Bank by
ha’Hng to finance the South Persia Rifles, an-operation which would have been
a matter of considerable difficulty without the Bank’s assistance. The proposal
has been mooted of opening a Branch at Saidabad, but nothing has been
decided as yet. Such a Branch would be both, useful to Government for the
financing of the garrison, and profitable to the Bank, in view of the increasing
importance of Saidabad as an entrepht on the Kerman, Yezd and Shiraz trad®
routes.
The Church Missionary Society Hospitals and School remained closed
throughout the year, though Dr. Dodso*
Church Mitoonarj Society.
immediately on his arrival, in December,
began to collect personnel, furniture and material for the Men’s ;Hospital, and
Dr. Westlake did likewise for the Women’s. Owing to the fact that during
next two months after the evacuation, in December 1915, most of the Hospital
property was looted either by Democrats or by the Persian personnel themselves
and to the fact that nearly all the former 0. M. S. Hospital Assis*
tanta and orderlies have joined the South Persia Rifles, the task confront'
ing Doctors Dodson and Westlake was an arduous one. Good progress hs*
however, been made up to date (March 21st, 1918), and both the hospito*1
are already in full swing. The return of the C. M. S. Doctors **
anxiously looked forward to by all classes in Kerman throughout the V**
under report, and His Majesty’s Consul was continuously being questioned
the subject.
Mr. A. E. Wetli remained in charge of this Company’s interests through;
out the year. Some 6 or ? suits broug?5
Oriental Carpet M^nufeotum, Limited. who
by -him against weaving contractors,
had defalcated with money advanced them, before the disturbances,