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54 PERSIAN GULF ADMINISTRATION REPORT
Sadi Khan, Sardar-i-Nizam, appears at the beginning of the year to W
been at war with Khan Muhammad Khan whom he plundered.
Later on, in April, it was reported that 8aid Khan, Bahrain Khan, Ala^
Khan and Ghulnm Rasul Khan had divided up Western Baluchistan among
themselves for revenue purposes. ^
In June, it was reported that Ali Shah Khan, chief of the Naruis at
Nusratabad, had joined Khudadad Khan in plundering the Sarhad district.
- In December, Said Khan again appears in public, firstly as attacking
Nawab Khan, and secondly as writing to the Governor General to say
that he could not pay Malyat, hut that Persia should ho grateful to him
for hiB loyalty in steadily withstanding the pressure of the British to join their
side. At an earlier date he had sought to intervene to save the life of Rifat*
Nizam by threatening to plunder Narmashir and Bam. He was too late.
It is useless to dwell on this at length. Duriug most of the year all road*
and districts were in a state of distur
General condition of the Province.
bance. Por months caravan traffic was
practically stopped in all directions, and post after post was robbed. Apart
from Baluch raids into Narmashir, etc., some 23 cases of raids and robberies are
mentioned in the diaries for the year, and this list is probably far from com
plete. Narmashir was raided by Baluchis almost continuously. Things
improved at the end of the year when the Amir-i-Mufakham began to make
himself feared, and to some extent felt.
Small parties of Aghans were reported as
Anns Traffic.
passing through Baluchistan from time
to time, but there appears to have been nothing of sufficient importance to
deserve to be recorded:
The Institutions and houses of business under the protection of the Con-
• sulate were :—
Commercial and Comnlar.
British Concerns.
Indo-European Telegraph Department . 5 British subjects.
Imperial Bank of Persia .... . 2 British subjects.
Church Missionary Society .... • 5-6 British subjects.
Eastern Rug and Trading Company . 2 Swiss subjects.
British Indian sbujeets
Hindus . 9 Agents.
Hindus’ servants. . 9 men.
Muhammadans . . 4 men.
Foreign Concerns.
Messrs. Costelli and Company (Italian) . . 1‘French 6nbject.
Messrs. Karaghusian and Company (American) . • 1 Turkish Armenian.
The Kazan Carpet Company (American) . I Turkish Greek.
H. S. Tavshanjian (American) . 2 Turkish subjects.
The Consular work of this post has undergone an entire ohange in the
course of the past few years. Formerly
coma or claims were few ; now almost the entire
energies of the Consul and his reduced 6taff are absorbed by the work entailed
by robbery and insolvency claims ; the remainder, by accounts and mattes
of domestic official routine.
The principal cause of this state of affairs is the deplorable condition into
which the administration of this, like other Persian provinces, has fallen, hut
a subsidiary cause is also the increase in the Consulate clientele by four carpet
firms, only one of which is British.
This absorption in trade work is important. It is entirely unremunerati^
in itself and makes it very difficult for tne Consul to do any touring—the only
