Page 478 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes to Chapter Seven

Trade by F.H. Gamble, Acting British Vice-Consul in Bushire, on the
Economic Conditions in the Persian Gulf of October 1934, (HMSO, no.
601) underlines some of the problems: "Very different trade conditions
prevailed on the Arab and Persian sides of the Gulf. On the Arab side,
customs duties ranged from 4 per cent to 15 per cent but there were no
restrictions on the quantities of merchandise imported and exported
and the statistics for the year (1 April 1933 to 31 March 1934) show that
the total volume of trade though still far below the level of five or six
years ago, increased slightly in comparison with that of the previous
year. ... On the Persian side, ... it is doubtful if there will be an
increase owing to the numerous regulations which remained in
force ... In addition to the difficulties of a quota system and the
payment of customs duties and road tax, merchants importing into
Persia were faced with the necessity of procuring certificates of export
before they could obtain certificates of import and when importing
certain classes of goods . . . and of first purchasing foreign exchange
from the Government at unfavourable rates. The monopolies of opium,
sugar and matches contributes still further to their difficulties ... with
the result that money became generally scarce.” (p. 5) in IOR, L/P &
S/12/3797 "Trade of the Gulf 1930-1948".
27 All these items are mentioned regularly in the "Extracts from the Diary
of the British Residency and Consulate General Bushire”, which are
collected in the file entitled "Smuggling in the Gulf 1928-38", IOR L/P &
S/12/3766. The procedure is for instance explained in paragraph 86 of
the Extract from the Diary of the British Resident in Bushire for June
1935: "The (Persian) gun boat Chahrokh succeeded in catching 2
smugglers' dhows in June. One of them had the following goods on
board: 20 bags sugar, 10 boxes tea, 5 bales cotton fabrics and the other a
sum of Rials 170,000 of Iranian silver which smugglers had sent out to
buy Rupees with. It is reported that smugglers can buy Rupees at Fao
and in other Arab ports at the rate of Rials 290 per hundred while the
rate of exchange for Rupees in Bushire is Rials 600 to 620 a hundred.
The smuggling of silver coins is reported to be vigorous in the Gulf
ports."
28 See IOR L/P & S/12/3766 (P.Z. 7888/34) Extract for November 1934.
29 Had this been the case, the British Government of India might have been
obliged to step in, but as it was it could—not without lengthy internal
consultations—adopt the view that smuggling was a Persian problem
and that the Indian Navy would not police the Gulf on behalf of the
Persian Government for nothing and even risk being driven out of
Persian ports. See in particular correspondence during 1929 between
the British Ambassador in Teheran, the Foreign Office, the Admiralty
and the Political Resident in IOR L/P & S/12/3766.
30 See for instance, extract from Teheran despatch no. 89 dated 16

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