Page 684 - PERSIAN 8 1931_1940_Neat

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At the end of the year, there were about twenty-two German or German-
subject male adults in Isfahan, and about three in Shiraz. There were perhaps
as many as half a dozen in the rest of the Shiraz Consular district.
Measures, designed to eliminate from Iranian industries foreign employees
who were politically undesirable, of which thcro had been some talk in the summer,
had not materialised effectively by the end of the year.
12. Educational.—The Iranian Government purchased the premises of the
Stuart Memorial College, Isfahan, and took over control of the school. Miss
Gerard was allowed to buy the Shiraz C. M. S. Girls’ School; the other two similar
Girls’ schools, at Isfahan and Yezd, were bought by the Government but arc carry­
ing on for the present school year as before Armenian schools were rigorously
lraniscd.
13. Agriculture.—The more extensive cultivation of opium was again permit­
ted, but if the crop for 1940 was much larger than that of the previous year, the
Iranian Government succeeded in concealing the fact. Iran asked for and obtained
more than double the 1939 price for the 1940 crop.
The cultivation of rice in Fare was, as the result of a petition made in April,
allowed for one year only by special permission for each place, i.e., by bribing the
officials who inspected the land and decided whether or not any other crop could
be planted there. The Fars wheat crop was not very successful. A shortage of
wheat in Isfahan and N. Iran developed during the summer and autumn, due
partly to exports made before the War, partly to private hoarding, and partiy to
two successive bad years. It was even said that many people died of starvation
in the Lenjan area above Isfahan. Whether or not this was so, it was learnt early
in 1941 that the Government had decided to make a similar concession for 1941 to
the cultivators there and in Bakhtiari country as had been made to Fars for 1940.
The silo at Mahan had been completely emptied of wheat. The Shiraz silo was
completed except that no machinery arrived. Large quantities of wheat were
sent out of Fars to stop the shortage at Isfahan and in iJorth Iran.
The fruit crop was a failure in most parts of Fars.
The Marvdasht refinery worked on sugar-beets grown in the surrounding
district for four months. Beet cultivation is widely pursued in Fars.
Inspite of the laws for the protection of forests, no effort was made in Fars
to check deforestation, which is gathering speed, and threatens to become very
serious.
ILLEGIBLE,
Acting Consul.