Coll 30/9 'Persian Gulf: Administration Reports 1926-1938' [‎188r] (380/1028)

r
35
According to information supplied by Dr. Pigott, numbers and fees are
Peeping up well in spite of Dr. Dodson’s absence on furlough.
Welfare work. —-Miss E. C. H. Stratton remained in charge of the Welfare
Centre, assisted by. Miss M. E. Robinson, throughout the year. The statistics
for the last four years are as follows :—
1931.
1932.
1933.
1934.
Number of eonlinements
76
92
89
69
Visits to Patients^ homes
1,614
1,936
2,049
1,251
Patients attending centre
347
321
274
284
Repeat visits
..
..
1,125
1,125
867
793
There is close co-operation between the Women’s Hospital and the W elf are
Centre, which is under the control of the lady doctor. All doubtful cases are
now seen antenatally by the doctor and advice is given.
Two combined antenatal and post-natal clinics are held weekly, one of
which is specially for carpet weavers, and children of all ages attend it. At
these meetings pregnant women are seen, and advice is given to mothers.
There are two senior and three junior workers attached to the Welfare
Centre. The three juniors have recently commenced their midwifery training.
Two workers passed the C. M. S. doctor’s examination (equivalent to 0. M. B.)
in September 1934 and another was to retake it in January 1.935.
5. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company Limited .—The Company’s business
in Kerman continued to. improve satisfactorily and the Russian stocks of
kerosine and petrol were exhausted by the middle of the year.
Early in October Dr. Harris and Mr. Falcon, the Company's geologists from
Abadan, arrived in Kerman and left for Bam, whence they intended to proceed
on survey to Persian Baluchistan and Mekran. After being kept waiting at
Bam for mally days, however, they were'obliged to return to Kerman and leave
for Isfahan, as the military authorities refused to furnish the necessary escort,
owing, apparently, to the disturbances in Persian Baluchistan.
Mirza Abdul Hussein Khan Sadri (Seif-ul-Mamalik), the company’s re
presentative in Kerman, was succeeded by Mirza Jalil Khan Suhai of Shiraz in
the month of October.
6. Carpet Trade, etc. —The exports in Kerman carpets and tribal rugs,
expressed in thousands of Rials, during 1934 and the three preceding years, were
as follows {The rate of exchange at the end of the year was Rials 84 to £l).
Kerman carpets and rugs
Tribal rugs
1931.
1932.
1933.
1934.
12,079
8,591
11,540
11,751
888
1,200
930
940
In spite of the above figures, which only show the export side, the period
under report was the worst known for many years, so far as the carpet industry
in itself is concerned. Prices began to fall steadily as the year advanced and
the majority of weavers could not get new orders when they had completed then-
contracts with the various firms.
By the end of the year the price of Kerman carpets had come down between
20 to 25 per cent, while the fall in the prices of tribal rugs was even more,
compared with those prevailing in the beginning of the year.
The proposal for the formation of a company, with a capital of 50 million
Rials for the monopoly of carpet trade, which was discussed at Tehran at the
end of December, has fallen through, owing, apparently, to its being considered
impracticable.
Wool Carding Plant.—The machinery for the wool carding plant, ordered
by the recently-organised company, called the ‘ Sherkat-i-Sihami ’, arrived from
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