File 8/9 Annual Report on the State of Bahrain for the year AH 1351 [‎75r] (154/200)

believe that anv effort at bringing cargo direct frcpui
India to a mainland port will not prove successful in
the long run; and T would hereremakk that the recent
decision of rhe .ingle Persian Oil Co. at Abadan to
send their small steamer T Khuzistan t to the mainland
uorts to sell oil etc., is an error; since the Company
will not sell any more oil than it does at present by
transhipment in Bahrain, but, on the other hand will
expose its steamer to extra working expense, and take,'
away some employment from some mainland and local
native craft.
In my renort for 1350, I alluded to the difficult
position existing here arising from the question of the
direct transhipment of cargo in this port. The ppsition
remained of minor importance for several years until
several factors; mainly the growing self-consciousness
of the Nejdy merchants, the high freight rates charged
by the B.l.S.N.Co. Ltd., (which company has practically
the monopoly of the India- Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. cargo traffic)
and the falling prices of Indian commodities nptably
cereals, made hhe Neidy merchants clpsely^consider the
amount of the expenses they were paying, in view of the
general business degression, on the cereals taken hence
to the mainland ports. These expenses included the
shipping expenses from India and the Bahrain expenses
on re-export.
In Bahrain the rate of Khanchia per bag had been
fixed at three annas; but after carefully considering
the position the Bahrain government decided to reduce
this rate in regard to re-exported bag cargo to Rs 6/-
per hundred bags.
in attempt to force down the B#I. rates had pre
viously been made bv a local Hindu merchant, who had
brought here a ship-load of rice and sugar from Cal
cutta in a Norwegian craft; but this action dia. nou
lead to a general permanent reduction of freight rates
by the Company.
Probably with this fact in mind, a Karachi snipper
of rice (whose shipments are sold onthe mainland on a
commission basis only) demanded special rates from the
B.I.S.N.Co. Ltd., under the threat that he would des
patch all future shipments by native craft direct to
the mainland, or possibly charter a special steamer^
for his own purchases. After considerable discussion
and correspondence it was decided to affirm the right
of the Bahrain government to^ collect^tw*? per cent ad
valorem upon all cargo transhipped within the port
limits; and the B.I.S.N.Co. made a gesture by reducing
its freight rate temporarily in order to compete with
a second special shipment of cargo from Calcutta to
Bahrain arrangdtby above Hindu merchant. This ship
ment came fonward*on s.s. n Fagervick n a Norwegian vessel
which arrived here on 1st Raba al Thany 1351 (<jrd Aug.
1932) with 24,176 packages of rice tea and colfee.
In the meanwhile the Karachi shipper, najy Hassan
bin Murzook. had promised H. B ; M T s Political -ageno
that he would make no direct shipments ttience to the
mainland of Arabi® in consideration oi a ieduction in
the freight rate, and also if the Bahrain government