Coll 30/9 'Persian Gulf: Administration Reports 1926-1938' [‎49r] (102/1028)

steamers ceased to carry the Iranian mails which are now carried by the
weekiy slow service ; the fast steamer calls in alternate weeks at Bahrain and
Bushire. The Hansa line maintains a fortnightly service from North German
ports, and a monthly service from New York. merman
Strick steamers to and from United Kingdom call monthly.
Other lines whose steamers visit Bushire at irregular intervals are •
Ellerman and Bucknall Java Silver Pacific, and the 4 JafZL S B usen
Kaisha, Yamashita, Osaka Shosen Kaisha, and Nippon Yusen Kaisha.
Air.—kiv France maintains a weekly connexion with India and Europe.
Calls are innuenced by the weather and the state of the landin° - -around over
carries being frequent in winter. K. L. M. (Dutch) planes have the option of
landing, but their calls are increasingly rare.
Road. The embankment road to Borazjan and Shiraz, is now complete
but has not yet been taken over by the authorities. This road, the only means
of overland communication, should, if maintained, ensure uninterrupted
communication in future with the interior. Projects rumoured during the
year of a lorry road in Bushire separate from the main road, and of a new
route via Eiruzabad to Shiraz, have not borne fruit.
Average monthly transport rates by lorry varied between the following
extremes :—•
f
Per Kharvar.
Bushire to Shiraz Rls 65 in May. 110—120 in December
Isfahan . . . . .140 „ 230—250
Tehran 180 „ 300—320
Bates are affected by pressure or lack of freight, by difficult road condi
tions, by outside influences such as commandeering by authorities for military
and other purposes. All three influences contributed to the high rates ruling
in December ; conversely lack of demand and easier conditions enabled the
more normal rate in May. Attempts by the Governor to fix rates for carrying
Government goods have hitherto proved unsuccessful, as the transporters are
jn a strong bargaining position and there is usually good demand for space.
5. Social conditions .—Social conditions, bad at the beginning of the year,
have not improved. The merchant and small trader are deprived of business
by the monopolization of articles of ordinary use, wheat, piece-goods, sugar,
tea ; the ordinary consumer sees only the restrictions, high prices and heavy
taxation resulting from the national economy, and has not, in Bushire, derived
any of its advantages. Nothing but articles of immediate necessity and a very
few primitive comforts are to be bought in the bazaar.
The price-index of common consumers’ goods is a continuously and
steeply rising one, as the table below shows :—
Commodities. Cost at January, 1937. Cost at December, 1937.
Tea
. Rls.
20 per
500 gr. .
. Rls.
18 per 500
F-
Bread
• 35
2 per
7-75 lbs. .
• 33
2•45 per 7
•75 lbs.
Flour
• 33
2-40
do.
• 33
2-50
do.
Ghee
• 33
35
do.
• 33
42
do.
Meat
• 33
8-25
do.
• 33
11-20
do.
Tomatoes
• 33
1-60
do.
• 33
1-20
do.
Potatoes
• 33
3
do.
• 33
4
do.
Rice bread
• 33
7
do.
• 33
7-50
do.
Loaf
• 33
1-25
each
• 33
2 each.
Water
• 33
1 per
skin
• 33
1 per skin.
+
f
b
4-
+
+-
4-
That local authorities realize how high is the cost of living and are not
unwilling to rectify it, is shown by attempts on two occasions, both unhappily
abortive, to fix food prices. An attempt to bring down the price of meat
foundered on the opposition of the butchers ; another to regula e e price o
bread was inherently unsuitable and the price fixed was never app le .
53(C) ExAffairsD^pt.