'REPORT on the Working of the Line of Communication AND ON THE Withdrawal of the British Military Mission IN EAST PERSIA, 1919-20. GENERAL STAFF INDIA. [‎46v] (99/168)

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some purchases of bhoosa on the spot, the delivery of which could not be refused.
Backloading these surpluses was out of the question, and it was equally clear
that to dispose of them by sale would result in a serious loss to the State, since
there would be no market for them, either in the sparsely populated neighbour-
hood of Shusp or in the Safedawa-Hurmuk desert. It was therefore decided to
exclude them from the selling as well as from the backloading programme, and,
instead, His Britannic Majesty’s Consul for Sistan was asked whether he
would take them over at a valuation. It happened to suit him for political
purposes to acquire control over a good stock of staple foods located at post&
along the shortest trade route from railhead to the north, and he was glad to
take them over. Since the Sistan Levy Corps were able to take charge of them
till the time came for utilising them, he was in a better position than private
traders for assuming possession, and was able to do so at a valuation that
greatly exceeded any price that they were likely at the moment to fetch in the
open market. The valuation agreed upon for each post made the transfer to
the Consul more economical for Government than backloading would have
been. About 10,000 maunds of bhoosa were thus left in Consular charge
at Shusp, another 5,000 at Kunik, two marches south of Shusp (where there
was an outpost of the Shusp Supply l)ep6t) and about 10,000 maunds
at Safedawa. • The quantities of grain and ata taken over by the Consul were
much smaller.
(4) Sates.—Major A. E. Birch, Deputy Assistant Director, Supply and Trans
port, Local Purchases, was deputed to organize and administer the sales under the
orders of the Assistant Director. Supply and Transport being already in close
touch with the leading traders of Khorasan, he was in a favourable position for
negotiating with them over sales as well as purchases, and, since it was highly
desirable to have one controlling authority, the supervision of sales of stores onfall
other services as well as of supplies was made part of his duty. The Supply
officers of all posts were therefore ordered to collect statements from local heads
of all services regarding articles for sale and inform the Deputy Assistant
Director, Supply and Transport, Local Purchases, accordingly. An advertising
propaganda was organized, private bids were invited and articles could be sold
forthwith to individual dealers if their offers were favourable, but if not, they were
to be put up later to auction. The Persian Customs authorities were to be
kept informed through the consulate of all transactions as they were made,
and to be given access to all auctions, so that they might levy the prescribed
customs duty at the time of sale. The indiscriminate sale of alcohol by
public auction was forbidden.
Sal bs were accordingly held at Meshed and at all posts down the line.
The Ueputy Ass ls tant Director, Supply and Transport, Local Purchases, super
intended at every sale except at Kui-Khaf and Sistan where the duty was
assigned to the Local Supply officer. J
Reliance was not solely placed on auctioning. Till the day of auction
wWhei”? 8 C ° U ! d b f e , acce P ted b 7 Major Byrch, on whom it devoh ed to decide
nnn ^ tlieSe blds or walt for the auction. Also whenever
nip *nnM- d n deSlra +i! e l- a , re6erv . e l ,rice was placed on articles that were
nrice P nr if ten 4 ! ’m t ,atthey ?'S ht elther be sold afterwards for a better
pnet, or, if tiansport became available for them, they might be backloaded.
created''bv^iino. 0 ! ex ,’ s ^ ed before the auction began that slump would be
the nusf resort 0 iff' > ra c ,s con spuing not to bid at all, in the hope that in the
thincf when no nth/ 1 '° U be allowed to lake the articles for practicallyno-
w dlSp ° SlnS 0f them remained. There were one
verv serious form ' vviio' S fear ." as ?° some extent realised, though not in a
last day of the sales *if T “^’fam miscellaneous articles remained over on the
^ Turbat , “^chants appeared to have been
they themselves ikn iti n People from bidding for individual articles;
for verw little Aen L ^ blddin - These *™cles on that account went
grLt relLtance'toM fn T ^? eoccumd a ‘ Birjand. Here there was
ostentatiously loaded on camels * E^th T* 7 " T thereu P on deliberately and
influential trader of R.vtn i T' /. be time they were all loaded up an
for them. d ‘ B 3 d rctumed In b ot baste and made a very fair bid