'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎23r] (50/470)

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Licences for sale of tobacco.
Tax on brick and lime kilns.
Petition stamps.
Liquor taxes, distilling and retail sale.
Fuah, a vegetable dye, obtained in Mandali district.
(e) —Establishments are maintained at Khaniqin, Mandali and Qizil
Robat. Qizii Kobat not being a frontier town does not now require a Customs
Omce, and tins is being abolished from the coming year, as there is now a Customs
office at Kifri. It was opened at the beginning of the year, as it was found that
small consignments of tobacco and, very occasionally, a few carpets were coming in
from Kifri area without paying duty. The Staff, one mamur and one qolchi, has,
however, not paid for itself.
Khaniqin is the principal office, and on account of the greater safety for
caravans along the main highway to and from Persia, has taken away much of the
traffic that formerly went via Mandali through the Pusht-i-Kuh and Kalhur
territory.
The greater part of the goods going to and from Baghdad come through on
duty paid passes and Khaniqin and Mandali act as checking stations.
Attached (Appendix No. 3) are details of establishment and amount of dues
taken on imports and exports at Khaniqin and Mandali for twelve months of the
year to end of December 1918.
Since the Armistice at the end of October, when trade restrictions with Persia
were largely removed, a British Officer has been appointed as Collector of Customs
to supervise work both at Khaniqin and Mandali.
Prevention of smuggling is controlled by the shabanah posts stationed along the
frontier and a special preventive staff is also employed by the Customs Officer.
Cases of attempts at smuggling are fairly frequent at present, but will tend to
decrease, as the shabanah and preventive staff are showing marked improvement in
their work.
The revival of the pilgrim and corpse traffic from Persia will make a considerable
difference in the coming year to the work at Khaniqin, and in a smaller degree at
Mandali.
(/) Compensation. Following are details of amounts paid out in the Division
as compensation to local inhabitants for damage or loss incurred owing to military
or other causes :—
(a) Khaniqin :
Trees cut down by military - . _
Damage to crops -
Demolition of house for new road in Khaniqin
Miscellaneous -
{h) Qizil Robat:
Demolition of buildings for military requirements
Damage to crops -
(c) Mandali :
Compensation to family of Jafur ibn Habib, shot
by a Russian soldier - - - -
Rs. as.
483 8
50 0
4,805 0
129 8
1,850 0
70 0
500 0
Total - - 7,888 0
2. Irrigation : Khaniqin. — The district is watered on the west by the Sirwan
and the numerous canals which take out of it ; and on the east by numerous
streams from the Persian hills; and, in the area of Khaniqin itself, by the Alwand,
the main tributary of the Sirwan.
North of the Quraitu River, in the Gurashala area, the country is too hilly for
extensive cultivation.
At Qal‘ah Tappah the country is more open and water supply plentiful.
Hajillar, the valley of the Ab-i-Khurkhan, has great possibilities for increasing
the area under cultivation, given settled conditions. Lfpto the present it has been
too open to raids from the Persian border.
The plains of Huwarain and Shaikhan in the valley of the Ab-i-‘Abbassan
have likewise never been cultivated thoroughly, as the Sharafbaini residing therein
have always been exposed to raids from Persian tribes on the east and from the
Jaf on the right bank of the Sirwan on the west,
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