'Administration Reports of the Persian Gulf, 1945 [-1946]' [‎147r] (306/414)

but construction continued and tanks were completed which
had not been ready for commissioning by the 30th June.
From July to December further water lines were laid and
houses constructed, while production continued to increase
and exports of oil rose. Up to Slst Decsmber 7,68,000 tons
of oil have been exported from Kuwait. December was a
record month - 1,70,000 tons were exported in 16 tankers.
In December a start was made on further survey work for
the extention of operations round Ahmadi by the construction
of quarters for all grades of staff. Houses were also in
course of construction in Shuwaikh for the senior staff and
tankage has been installed there for bulk products for the
Company T s use.
At the end of the year, the Company's personnel
strength amounted to:-
Senior Staff 73
Junior Staff 144
Foreign Artisans 218
Labour 1193
apart from contract labour.
All THE IMFERIaL 3AMi OF IR^N .
The two most important features of the bank's
working during 1946 was (1) A continued increase in deposits
of approximately 70 lacs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees , which is an indication of the
continued, confidence the bank enjoys in the bazaar, and
(2) a very large increase in the number of credits opened
with places abroad. Previous to 1946 merchants did not
avail"themselves of these facilities to any great extent.
The withdrawal of rupee notes of Rs 500/- denomina
tion and over in the early part of the year gave rise to a
little uneasiness, but when a large consignment of lower
denomination notes were received by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. this
disappeared. Notes of Rs 1,000/- denomination are still being
presented from time to time and these are sent to the Reserve
Bank of India, Bombay, where, in most cases they are paid
after the necessary formalities have been completed^
"Money conditions have been easy during the period
under review and the bank were very seldom asked for credit
facilities. Merchants have imported almost any king of
consumer goods that they were able to obtain and have usually
disposed of these at large profits. The chief supplying
countries were the iJnited Kingciom and tlie L .o.A.
Towards the end of the year large consignments of
Ion tea were imported from India,/Java and China. Since the
■ing of the price control in America and the resultant rise in prices
irters from America experience some difficulty in obtaining goods as
exoorters - were unable to sel-i. at the contract price* ihis
is^borne out by the continued requests the bank received
to increase the amounts of the original credits.
No bad debts were incurred by the .^ank during the
year. The bad debt incurred in 1945 of Rs 25,000/- has been
reduced to approximately Rs 16,000/-
Mr* Matheson, late manager of the Kuwait branch of
the Imperial Bank of Iran arrived here from Tehran on the 28th
1 February and left on the 9th March. During his stay in
Kuwait he concluded an agreement with the Ruler for an
extension of the ^ank's concession for a further 15 years
and also for the construction of new premises in the town.
i XIII