Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎93v] (186/644)

obtaining the contracts for the equipment of a mill at Bushire, as well as for one
at Meshed, where a company is being formed by Meshed merchants m association
with a Parsee group for the erection of a mill with 20,000 spindles and 672 looms.
A cotton mill at Semnan is reported as intending to order, probably in the United
Kingdom, an additional 1,000 spindles. This mill is equipped with second-hand
British spindles, and the new order, if placed, would bring the number of spindles
in use in Semnan to about 5,000.
557. A call for tenders for the erection of a cotton factory An East India Company trading post. at Ashraf in
Mazanderan for Government account was published in December. Ihis factory An East India Company trading post.
would include spinning, weaving and printing sections, and the value of the
order would probably be at least £200,000. Some surprise has been expressed
at the decision to instal the factory An East India Company trading post. in Mazanderan, since the cotton grown in
the neighbourhood of Veramin is said to be much superior, and it is not impossible
that even at this stage there may be a change of plans. The former Director-
General of the Department of Industry and Agriculture informed the commercial
secretary that the Government intended eventually to erect eight factories of a
similar type to that for which tenders were being invited.
558. Sentiment is at present strongly in favour of United Kingdom textile
machinery, and it is to be hoped that this sentiment will be translated into further
useful orders in the near future. The cotton goods which these new factories
will produce will be of the cheaper varieties, and more likely to compete with
Japanese or Soviet than with United Kingdom imports.
559. The jute mill at Resht, referred to in paragraph 470 of the report
for 1932, has started production of high quality twine, and expects to achieve an
output of 18 cwt. of twine per working day of ten hours. The forty looms
with which it is equipped are capable of producing 2| million sacks a year. All
the machinery for spinning and weaving is of British manufacture, and the
factory An East India Company trading post. is under the management of a British subject, a native of Dundee.
Sugar Factories.
560. The Shah’s intention to instal more sugar factories (see paragraph 475
of the 1932 annual report) was substantiated in the spring, when a call for
tenders for six new plants was published in the local press. The orders, as
anticipated, went to Czechoslovakia, the contract, according to the local press,
being signed with M. Chalupa, the director of Skoda, on the 27th April.
561. The cost of the six factories was stated to be 1,700,000 dollars, payable
in six instalments, of which the first two, amounting to 420,000 dollars, were
reported as having been paid by the 13th July. The last payment is to be made
two years after all the factories will have commenced functioning.
562. The first two are already under construction, one near Shahi in
Mazanderan, and the other at Veramin. The remaining four will probably be
erected in Azerbaijan, Khorasan, Isfahan and Khuzistan.
563. The Government’s programme includes the construction of six more
factories, so that by 1945 there should be fourteen in all, including the existing
ones at Kerej and Kahrizak. ° &
o64 The wisdom of this extensive programme, as also the probability of
its ever being carried out in its entirety, is open to question in view of the fact
that the beet crops for the two existing factories at Kerei and Kahrizak were
almost entirely destroyed by insect pests during the year. The Kerei factory An East India Company trading post. is
stated to have been engaged for only ten days on sugar production instead of
the four months said to be normal, and, according to bazaar reports received
at the commercial secretariat, there is no demand for the sugar now placed on
the market A supply of vert de Paris ’’has been imported for combating the
pests, and the Government are again considering the possibility of supplying a
proportion of their sugar requirements by cane cultivation in suitable localities
In the event of this possibility materialising, the factories now built or ordered
wou d probably be useless, and new factories equipped to deal with sugar cane
would have to be installed. G