Page 274 - Gulf Precis (V)_Neat

7G
280. No action was taken by (ho Government of India, but the case was dis­
cussed personally by Secretary with Colonel Kemball, during His Excellency
tho Viceroy’s recent tour in the Porsian Gulf, and the Bahreinoso traders woro
told by Secretary that tho question was undor consideration pending decision
about raising status o£ Bahrein Agency and Yiee-Consulate for ICatif and Ojair.
290. A recent complaint was made by Tokchand Dwarkadas, a Cutcbi
merchant (referred' to in paragraph 273)
Section E, Mny 1904, Nos. G—7.
that the customs farmer demanded a duty
of 12 per cent, on the date exported from ICatif to Cutch. Under the Commer­
cial agreement botwcon Turkey and Persia dated Gtli September 1003, the 12 per
cent, export duty on goods destined for Persia was abolished, and under
the arrangements oxisting before the treaty, a refund of 11 per cent, would have
been made on the dates exported to British Indian ports, but in tho case of
dates exported to Cutch ports the full 12 por cent, duty would have been
levied and no rebate made. Now that the treaty referred to has abolished the
12 per cent, duties, there was, in the opinion of Colonel Kemball no longer
anyroason for claiming the deposit in thecaso of the goods sent out to India and
elsewhere, Colonel Kemball, however, thought that little good would result from
attempting to obtain a refund of the over charges raado, but if it were decided to
appoint a Consular representative at Katif, a good caso would have made out for
such a step.
291. The question then of appointing a Consular officor at Katif was dis­
cussed in the Foreign Department, and the following duspatoh addressed to the
Secretary of State (No. 3, dated the 31st March *201):—

No. 74 Secret E., dated Fort William, tho Slat March 1904.
From—1The GnTcrnment of Inlia, Foreign Department.
To—The Night llon’ble St. John Bbodbigk, Ilia Majesty’s Secretary of State for India.
“ Wo hnve the honour to forward, for your information, copies of the correspondence noted
in the schedule annexed, regarding our commercial intore.-ts at Katif. Prior to the Ottoman
occupation of El JIas>-a, a nourishing settlement of Indian traders carried on business at this
port. In 1871 the place became the head-quarters of a Turkish Kaimmakam; a Customs
House was instituted ; and official regulations have since been so used, or rather abused, as to
destroy the British trade which had previously been established. An export duty of 1 per cent,
has practically been convened into one of 8 per cent, by tho demand that a deposit of this
amount should be raado on the value of all dates oxpoitcd. This exaction was ostensibly intend­
ed to prevent the diversion of cargo to the Persian coast, exports to which were previously
chargeable with a duty calculated at that rate. Every possible difficulty appears, however, to
have been placed in the way of obtaining a refund even on proof of the goods having reaohed
a British destination, Remonstrances have from time to time been lodged with the responsible
Turkish officials. In 1899 Colonel Meade, our Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, reported
that, as the result of a protracted correspondence, the refund had been procured of a sum of
Rs. 5,012-9-0, out of a total amounting apparently to some Rs. 15,000, which certain traders
had been required to deposit in accordance with the practice which we have noticed. But the
abuse has not been checked.
2. Other complaints which have been received have chavged the local officials with
deliberately hampering Indian traders by delays in Cu.-tora-hous* formalities, by prohibition
of the supply of transport, and by tho use of quarantine regulations as a pretext for the
detention of Indian craft which had been clcaar of infected ports for periods entitling them to
exemption from restraint even under the most rigid sanitary rules. In 1900, Colonel Meade's
successor forwarded correspondence which showed that the bania community at Katif had
been reduced from ouc of 70 or 80 persons to a single trader, and that a party of those were
still desirous of carrying on business at tbs port bad furnished tho clearest evidenco of the
harassment to which they had been subjected by expressing their willingness to pay in advance
the cost of maintaining a British Agent to protect their interests on the spot. In view of
the antagonism with the Turli6 into which we had been brought in other parts of tho Gulf, wo
deemed it inadvisable at the time to propose an attempt to obtain the recognition by the Porte
of a British representative at Katif. His Britannic Majesty’s Consul, however, brought tho
complaints which had been made to the notice of the Wali of Bosrah, who undertook to issue
instructions to the Kaimmakam to remove the disabilities under which British tradors laboured.
Later reports bIiow that these representations have been ineffectual. In 1908 we woro informed
that our traders still feund difficulty in obtaining refunds of deposits, and wo have recently
heard that illegal dues are still exacted in spito of tho exemption of exports to Persia from the
duty which picviously formed tho pretext for such demands. The majority of the sufferers