Coll 28/120 ‘Persia. Ahwaz – Consular diaries.’ [‎55r] (110/669)

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Sartip Zara¥i is apparently to take over the Kh®rramaTR$i
Conu.iand, a prospect which appears t® please him immensej-y, and
is to "fee succeeded Colonel Koraay#on who was in commann of the
Persian troops at Shush. (See para 6 of Ahwaz Diary fo? the
15tn t® 31st Octcher 1542). *
(15) The Governor-General went to Xhorramshahr and Ahadan on
17th Decernber and returned on the 22nd,
(16) With reference to para 3 «f Ahwaz Diary f»r the first-
half of Decemberj Sarhstng Ishci. Officer Commanding of r;ndRmerie
in Khuzistan, returned to Ahwaz on 31st December,
IV.
liJconemic Situation,
(17) Although there have been no maj®r changes in the n“ , 3.ce.s
ef staple foodstuffs, the general rise in prices continues.
Bazar butter, which at the beginning of December c®st 1: Hi*ls
a Lb , has n«w reached 30 Rials and meat becomes scaror 1 ;
firewood, which a year ag® c#st ®ne Rial f®r ten kilce is n»w
a rial and a (|uarter for one kil®.
er
ig
propose to pay the agreed price of Rials 5,000 per -’or thar
quantity f At the suggestion, of His Majesty’s Consul-r neral,
they are reported, however asking the Governor-Genere. for a
list of the stocks in Dizfu.1 with a view to obtaining he balance
of their requirements at the Go^erncr--General’s pric^ «f Rials
2,500.
(19) V/idespread and timely rains have improved the rr spacts
for the next harvest, but the distribution of the l,4|:$tons cf
seed wheat allotted to Khuzistan of which 1,850 t®ns have
so far arrived proceeds slowly in spite of the efforts of this
Consulate-Ceneral tc hasten matters, Less than this has
been sent to the various centres, while much less ce: iave
actually reached the cultivators. Hamidieh reckon tirrc is only
a fortnight more in which grain can profitably be £o\vt\« The
Persian authorities lack any revenue records which wofid enable
them to distribute the wheat to the carts where it v-ov.d give
the best return and the corruption of the minor officals tends
to divert the seed tc the highest bidder. The cultivtors,
on the other hand, have made little or no attempt to Repay their
last year’s loans of seed and some at least ar° concc-’ied chief
ly to get hold of cheap wheat which they can sell at in immediate
and considerable profit. (The Governor-General infeyed His
i/Iajesty’s Consul-General that he had ordered the publ.c flogging
of *-ne Arab cultivator who was caught red -handed sel'i.ng in the
bazaar five bags of seed-wheat he had just received fora the
Persian authorities.)
(2®) Jf the numerous scandals connected with the distribution
of seed the most noteworthy has been the transaction kith
Hedayatullah Kaiantari of Phushtar. He is reported t< have paid
the regulation douceur of Rials 500 for his seed whoa* and gene
off with considerable elati®n, since he had an order ."or tens,
to the ' rinancs Department. A petty official ther^ refused to
give him more than half the amount, apparently on the pretext
that Hedayotullah had to pay a further sum of Rials S,000 to the
Ustandari. The landlord then returned to the Ustaniiri with
Agha Nasseri, the local Deputy of the Majlis, whom re had found
with the head of the Pinance Department. The Kalarfary family
had suffered severely as a result of not paying sufficient
to avoid chargee of hoarding and it appears tin t Heiiyatullah' s
complaints were sufficiently outspoken to cause one cf the
Governor-General’s ’characteristic rages’’. The Governor-fener&l
is reported to have vowed tc send the landlord and 'he two