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IRRIGATION, AGRICULTURE, AND MINOR INDUSTRY 475
Minerals
Salt production, about 9,000 tons a year, is taxed and strictly
supervised. The largest deposits are at Fao, Hit, Kom, and Tuz
Khurmatli.
Manjaq, bituminous brown coal of low grade, is mined at Kifri
by the State Department of Mines. Production in 1943 was 2,240
tons.
Gypsum is worked mainly at Mosul, Kifri, and Falluja, and sulphur
found with it is sufficient for local needs. Potassium nitrate, crystal
quartz, sandstone, and dolomite occur, but are nowhere exploited
extensively.
Engineering
Commercial workshops, nearly all at Baghdad, include four small
plants for machinery repairs, two for making spare parts for
agricultural machinery, and a tool factory which can produce 180,000
assorted tools in six months. But the establishments of the State
Railways employing 1,000 workers are the most modern and complete
establishments in Iraq; they can produce castings up to 2 tons. The
Public Works Department has a smaller engineering plant.
Boat Building
Apart from the modern repair workshops at Basra-Maqil (p. 514)
this is limited to small yards at Hit and Nasiriya on the Euphrates,
and Mosul, Baghdad and Basra on the Tigris, which make native
craft varying from the canoe-like mashuf and bellum, and the shakh-
tur or native lighter, to the larger sailing craft known as safinas or
mahailas. The trade is generally in the hands of the Sabians.
Labour
There is a great shortage of skilled labour of every kind (p. 451);
hence there is no unemployment problem in Iraq. In 1936 a Labour
Law was enacted, based on the advice of the International Labour
Office. It concerns hours of work and rest, employment of women
and children, workmen’s compensation, labour unions, and so forth.
In 1937 a 48-hour week and 8-9-hour day was instituted under this
law, the application of which caused a few local strikes. Few trade
unions have come into being. Rates of pay for unskilled labour had
risen from 30 to 50 fils by 1937; war-time needs, however, have caused
a crisis in this as in other economic spheres (p. 485).