Page 427 - 5 Persian Trade rep BUSHIRE I_Neat

REPORT

ON TIIR

TRADE OF BUSHIRE

for tlio year 1913-14 by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf.
INTRODUC riON. j The municipality owns a prison and pays some
•10 poli- omen recently provided with uniforms,
Town and population.—The town of Bushire blue for tho winter, khaki with red facings for
situated at the northern end of a cigar-shaped the summer.
ffiSTto itmin''ihoir;n!aJlo0 bPa^and'rpla^ j Tbc r,;„ciP!= .bat .be pry*of municipal
known ns tbo Masbilcb, which in winter more \ «*«»*« to be availab.e for local improvement*
resembles a marsh. Tbo population ot (be town \ ami not sent to the e:.;.jtnl w,;b anv surplus of
Sf is estimated to be ls/t’OO, composed ebieflr P^uncal revenue. kia been conceded l, the
of Persians and Arabs. The Arab character of j ccn ** r™»,r7- . .
1
»jttf (own lends to disappear as time goes on. i nflu.ation.— Thor? :s in E-?!ure one school
' llusbire can Vast of no Wvd class Its
population is composed almost cM.elv of the fonil 0f i voluntarv lax of or.Ushahi on ev'rv
nwn-autile (including mcrebai«t, brokc.r* nT} package of nie.vbundi-? inv -;ted by Persian
j ;n.e pupils number 350.
important merchants hold agencies for Manches- ; Eng.idi is taught by an Armenian educated
ter firms. There are a few medical practitioners j Calcutta, ar.d the three upper classes spend an
of whom two or three employ European methods i hour daily at the language. Other subjects
and dru0^, the remainder remain faithful to • taught are Persian, Arab a, arithmetic, geography,
Aricenna'and Galen, while female superstition Muhammadan law and Persian history,
still requires the presence of the medicine-man, English also forms a feature of the teaching
expert in casting out malicios Jinn. of the Armenian school founded in 1909 and
The European official ami mercantile community maintained by private subscription.
numbers some forty persons. Many of the larger Bushire firms can corr**s*
Municipality.—Bushirc is not a beautiful town ; i P°n<] iu English: french is almost unknown.
it possesses no monuments or relics of antiquity. Persian is the asual medium of correspondence.
Narrow and tortuous passages wind in and out Position of Bushirc in Persian Trade.__The
am<-ng overhanging mud bouses, revealing only j part played by Bushire in the foreign trade of
a thread of blue sky to the bewildered pedestrian. South Persia was fall? discussed in the Trade
Immemorial usage has sanctioned the throwing Report for 1912-13. It is therefore sufFcient to
of the foulest garbage into these ill-ventilated say that the importance of Bushire lies in its
thoroughfares. situation at the terminus of the great caravan
A self-supporting municipal organisation ha6 route running through the middle of Pers a 6y
houevor now taken shape and during the year ^a7 °‘ ‘-hiraz and Ispahan to the capital, Tehran,
under report tbo sea-walls were re-built, now prosperity of the port thus depeads largely
roads were laid down and steps taken for the ?n *no. up-country markets, on the security or
fighting of the town and the main road leading insecurity of the roads, and oa the quantities
to the suburbs. Donkeys i^ increasing but still °* transport available.
insufficient numbers, remove or try to cope with The position of BosLire as an independent
the task of removing, the accumulated rubbish, distributing centre for the coast plain is discussed