Coll 28/120 ‘Persia. Ahwaz – Consular diaries.’ [‎213r] (426/669)

5
o f-% r j :
< M.1 O . I*.
300 to 000 kharvars during the regime of the ex-
mis year* is a slight improvement on last year* - a oil
eight kharvare;. Oho poor collection is clue (a) to the "act
shat hiack market prices are SCO to 500 Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. per man as
igainst the Government price ef 100 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. . ( c) to the corr
uption and inefficiency of the officials, especially the Gen-
iarmerie, 7 /ho themaelves are implicated in smuggling, o r <:
c) to the exchange of opium for rifles at the rate of y,000
remans per rifleo A thriving trade in •pium and rifles is
} aid t« he carried on from Alishtar via Vannai, 13 mile^ vest
if Burujird, and Jauzan, near Malayer; the rifles, it in sal
come from the direction of Tehran,
11) a It has been suggested *y the Director-General mf
finance that , as hundreds of thousands of Arabs living #a the
Kblic Domains, which constitute the bulk of the land in
Sluzistan, will pay hardly any income tax under the law if
!;32, the old tax on each pair of oxen should be re-impo^ed.
# i'
pregr
31 mains at all
This is certainly true,
12 ) . on his way through Ahwaz, I£r,?eate, represenring
lessrs BoRo & Po Turner of Ipswich, manufacturers of flo^r
lilting machinery, called at the Consulate—;re.neral and d;«—
-ussed the neeie •f lOiuzistan* He was only here for a rew
icurs between trains on a Friday, and it proved impossible
fc lay hands •n any of the mill owners to meet him. He fad a
ling and profitable conversation, however, with the Amer.een
Slrector-General «f Finance, and discussed the needs of °ie
A*waz ^ilOo
13) , The Director-General of Finance has appoints! nine
•onmisglons for the purpose of surveying all agriculture
Hards In Xhuzistan, Five of them have already commence! u’erk,
14) • Markets during the month have been very quirt*
prticularly during the latter half of the manth, owing to
^madhaJtio News of the Allied successes had a slight der
^pessing effect on prices generally, but there ware no :at—
sanding changes in prices except for tea and sugar® ^ e
^Drcser fell to Rials £?#-33# per kilo wholesale, as a milt
tea being released from the customs® -The whel.esale price
of sugar fell nearly -50^. t# Rials BO per kilo, in part die to
<B report of arrival in the N«rth mf sugar from Russia, :n part
(hie to the continued success of the Government a 1 stribu' 1 on of
CjUgai*® Wheat was at Rials 400 per 50 kilos, and barley at
li&Xs 19#, as against Rials 430 and Rials 220 at the rial of
lily* The prices ox* shiirss in local companies was declining
Auring the month®
IRRIGATION,
There is talk that the Government-financed farm at
Igmidiah may clone down® Coiohel Noel's Persian ass.start, .
Tio was unpopular with the local Arabs, has been p'<m»ned to
Tehran, whither Oclonel Noel himself has gone in ordxr to dis-
subf? the proposed dismissnal of his assistant end the future mf
die irrigation schemer* Work on the Behhehan irrigaiion
xcheme has been temporarily suspended owing to lack cf funds*.
'*m AND ORDER - Burnjird,
16)® Reference para 19 of Diary No* 11 0 R#bbe:*ies in
“he 'villages still continue, especially around Darbnng, east
it Dorudo It appears that on the entry of Allied troeps into
/Persia,