'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎135r] (274/470)

the Military to their owners. Owners now pay Re. 1/- per horse per month as
stabling rent, out of which four annas are paid to the owner of the site, while the
balance is credited to the municipality towards the upkeep of the Civil Veterinary
Dispensary. Some 400 horses are kept in the Public Gharry Stables, thus bringing
some Rs. 300/- per month to the municipality. The site of the public gharry stables
is not too good. In rainy season, the place being much below the level of the roads,
becomes a veritable quagmire, and the horses suffer considerably. But it would be
difficult to find a more convenient situation, and for the present steps are being
taken to keep the water out by mud walls and improving the roofing.
Civil Veterinary Dispensary .—A Civil Veterinary Dispensary has been established
near Bait Naqib, Basrah City. A building and the necessary ground were given to
the municipality free of rent by the Naqib, and the D.A.D.W., Civil, converted it
into a not inferior hospital, at an initial expense of some Rs. 2,300/-. Repairs
have been necessary from time to time, and a cholic box and dark room have been
added. But the dispensary is already paying its way, as will be seen from the
statement of its accounts in Appendix F. It has accommodation for 39 horses
and, since its inception in June, has treated 250 horses. A scale of charges and
further information will be found in Appendix H, while a classification of diseases,
&c., treated has been made in the same appendix. Attached to the Dispensary is
an open isolation hospital in a date garden. Sheds for these isolation cases are now
in process of erection, the materials having been procured from the destruction of
Old gharry stables near Ottoman Square. The work at the Civil Dispensary is giving
great satisfaction both to the authorities and to the gharry owners, and for this
credit is due to Sgt. Favell. With the installation of a field forge, the municipality
will become independent of the Military Authorities, and the revenue of the
dispensary will be increased.
Rack Renting .—If rents were high last year, they have become higher this year.
The assessment of this year did its best to bring the municipal registers level with
the actual state of affairs. But, although the increase in the assessed rents was on
the whole nearly 100 per cent, above those of the previous year, although the policy
of the Assistant Military Governor has generally been against allowing eviction
unless some such omission as non-payment of rent, &c., could be proved, although
a 50 per cent, or 30 per cent, tax on the assessed rent was levied in the cases of
houses which were wholly or partly converted into godowns, in spite of the Rent
Restriction Proclamation of July, it has been found impossible to stop rack renting.
But it must not be thought that all the sin is on the part of the landlords. In the
general prosperity of Basrah, tenants have been willing to pay much more than the
assessed rents, and it seems to me that, even were there rack-renting laws, it would be
impossible, in the combined circumstances of a prospering Basrah and a scarcity of
houses, to prevent tenants from paying and landlords from accepting more than the
legal rent. People will tell one that rents nowadays, compared with pre-war
rents, are absurdly high; but I think the philosophic calm with which they will pay
these absurd rents is the outcome, to a great extent, of the knowledge that they can
afford them in these days of comparative prosperity. Certainly the Rent Restriction
Proclamation has failed entirely to keep rents down. It would be no exaggeration
to sav that not a single tenant in Basrah pays only the legal rent, nor would a single
tenant bring before the Military Governor a landlord for having taken or demanded
more than such rent. If one tenant will not pay what the landlord asks, another
will, and the Military Governor will never know. By the Rent Restriction Rules,
registration of lease is optional j but, even weie it compulsory, the state of affairs
would not be much better, for the reason explained above and because the Arab is
not naturally a litigious being and would rather enjoy the excitement of bargaining
for his rent than have it fixed for him by an outsider, while the Jews and Christians
are small, almost self-contained, communities with a laissez faire attitude towards
the rest of their members.
Taxation. At the beginning of the year the third house rent assessment was
made The result was that the total of assessed rents rose from Rs 510,000/- of
the previous year to Rs. 960,000/-, and an increase of some-Rs. 45,000/- by way of
house tax was brought to municipal revenues. With effect from 1st April, the
Military Governor ordered that, in the case of houses of an annual assessed rental
of less than Rs 120/-, the 10 per cent, house tax should be suspended and a tax
levied of not less than Rs. 12/- per annum, in this way bringing such houses on a
level with sarifahs. Meanwhile, the outlying villages were brought under a hut