Coll 28/120 ‘Persia. Ahwaz – Consular diaries.’ [‎307r] (614/669)

3
The views of Zeyyid Zia have heen learnt concerning the best
persons to elect for the province of Khuzistan, He objects
to iSadegh Bushehri as useless^ to bultani as an incorrigible
intriguer, and to Niqabat as being t#c clever and 'Rich
exposed to the intrigues of his local family connexions*
r\
Colonel Noel has returned from a private vi
c' -4 4-
m
LUEIvSTAN,
(16) *
Luristan, and reports the existence of considerable appre
hension as to the course which events might take when • ? *he
Allied evacuation shallhave been completed. In this connectlo
the Commander of Ahwaz Sub Area expressed some disquiet as
to the possibility of British camps being attacked,pllferred
or looted, after being emptied, and before being disposed of.
He asked the Consul-General whether something could be done
to ensure security from the point of view of the Persians.
The Consul-General with the help of the Town Major Dcroud
interviewed the local officials at Dcroud on the Goth August
and pointed out to them their responsibilities* They seemed
fully alive to their duties and. were inclined to doubt
the Dorcud camp was in any danger of attack or looting*
the other hand further down + he railway line, at Qarur-
Safid Dasht, '•here has been a certain amount’nf firing
railway pickets at night, by papi and other Lurs: their
k he r
)ect was tc scare the guards and steal some
or their
in this they did not succeed and no one was hit*
\ ~ ! > <> On a bo at no Sf5th August a .cur family, living
near Dor©ud, discovered a strange object lying on the ground
and took it home to examine it* It was a mortar shell which
exploded and killed all six members of the family.
BGONOUICe
(18). Seyed Ja’far Noushin, the head of ihe Hcor.omic
organization, has informed this office that the folio inp
contracts and collections of grain have been.made uj t-o date:
Contractss
Wheat 0
5170 toni
Co 11 e g t io n sL 13 7.9 :t
Barley
S431 tons
665 ”
Totftl 0
7601 tons
9037 ”
J.o30 tons of wheat na.?> also been collected, r core sent i .* m the
repayment of seed issued last year, with 10^ interes*. This
represents about half of what was
year c
—p what was distributee as seea last
fl9). Br ead , The month has seen the development of t racket
in bread, under the following conditions
^The.market price of wheat is Pials 3.2 per lilo«
The Municipality is allowing a certain merchant called
Quraaishi to sell wheat to bhe bakers at Blais 5, inclin ing
milling and porterage. The bakers are reconciled tc tbas bv
being allowed to sell their bread at Rials to 6 instead of
at the legal price of Rials Quraaishi is thus making a
profit cf something between 1 & 2 Rials per day per cil.o* If.
as is pi»obab.i.e ? he selling 30 tons a day. he is therefore
making a profit of from 20,000 to 40,000 Rials a day. o/
ween 7-g- and 15 million
> year out of an illegal inr
on the necessities of the people, who are in fact o;* _
an even heavier burden, as another i Rial per kil* 1,"added
to the cost cf ^neir bread by the collusive profi/t
oc^A::vTW>:e
hakers. As all this is happening m ” *■ a
Municipality, the possibility that
plicated in this lucrative job cannot be ruled'otS
•vd; the
'AS JO s,£UiG&X* mg
/always
ay
, io