Coll 30/9 'Persian Gulf: Administration Reports 1926-1938' [‎450v] (905/1028)

side, chiefly on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , as the Arabs’ maritime supremacy in the
Gulf had resulted in Arab settlements and connections on the Persian Coast
in places tha Persian sovereignty of which could not be denied.
Section 8 .
Trade and Trade Facilities.
Trade .—The harvest for 1928 was fairly good. Lack of rain in Feb
ruary and March prevented the expectations of a bumper harvest, which
were held earlier, from being realised, but there was no shortage of grain in
the district and, compared to the last few years, the harvest may be consi
dered as good.
Trade generally continued to suffer from the lack of money caused by
high customs duties, monopoly taxes and road tax, the proceeds of which the
Government continues to accumulate in the Capital. A certain amount of
this money is now being put back into circulation as the work on the railway
advances, but this district does not benefit as the railway will not pass
through any part of it. The value of sugar imported showed a big decrease,
but owing to a fall in world prices the weight imported remained about the
same as last year. Imports of tea and cotton piecegoods showed a consider
able decrease. The application in May 1928 of the new Persian Autonom
ous Customs Tariff, which further increased customs duties on nearly all com
modities, particularly luxury articles, proved another set back to trade.
During 1928 the threatened Russian economic invasion of the Gulf mate
rialised and three Russian ships called at Bandar Abbas and Bushire—the
S. S. ‘Tobolsk’ in June and the S. S. ‘Michael Frunze’ and ‘Kommunist’
in October and November. Their cargo consisted mainly of sugar and piece-
goods. The effect of this re-entry of Russian trade into the Gulf has not
proved so disastrous as was anticipated; the sugar imported did not sell well
and the piecegoods, although popular on account of their cheapness, good
design and exceptionally fast colours, were not imported in sufficient quan
tities to form a really serious menace to the pre-eminent position held by
India and the United Kingdom in this market. Nevertheless the threat of
competition and the low price of Russian goods undoubtedly had a disturb
ing e ect on the market while the continued infiltration of Russian goods
c own rom the north to Isfahan and as far as Shiraz seriously affected the
ra e o Bushire as the distributing centre for imports to those towns and
communications —Glotov transport continued to increase throughout
the year and rates of hire fell until they were in the neighbourhood of one
rupee per ton mile as opposed to approximately nine annas and a half per ton
mile tor animal transport.
thm,i r crh e n 1 o^ hire ^ hiraZ / 0ad was maintai ned in tolerably good repair
was widened ? u 1 miner anc * t ^ le roa ^ over some of the worst passes
and the subsennonf r ° P ara P e t s - The recent winter snow, however
faces and thi^ w'li y a P ld ^ aw f great deal of damage to the road sur-
TTntfl tWnoi ke a 1 great deal of . time and mone y ^ put right again,
season. At oresenf P ro P^ r y. Inetaded this damage will take place every rainy
loose earth nvpr fh h a ersian en g meer s content themselves with spreading
Snes is doue V^ 1^1 ° f 'J 16 r ° a(L No rammi ^ rolling in of
the marshvTr.pT jn , 6 W °? ^ d ^ e ° n the track across the Mashileh,
sfich timoL I P ^ ? U f ire Isl . and from the mainland, and until
subiect to inundstimi ^ 18 u °’ Ver so ^ t ’ ^ ow ground which is
to merrunUon ^ transport between Bushire and Shiraz will be liable
to interruption for some days after every fall of rain.