"تقارير إدارية ١٩٠٥-١٩١٠" [ظ‎‎١‎٢] (٦١٦/٢٩)

8
ADMINISTEATION EEPOET ON THE PEESIAN GULP POLITICAL
—Bunder
)bas.
Cable connection and dispute
Government.
with the Persian
His present visit was doubtless intended as a set off to that of the
Newcomen Commercial Mission, but so far as is known the Prince did not
have much success.
On the other hand it is disappointing to have to report that the institu-
„ .., a , „ tion of the Sample Room at Kerman for
n is amp e com. ^ display of patterns of British goods
has hitherto proved altogether abortiye.
A Government of India officer was appointed to Bunder Abbas in 1900
as Assistant to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and ex-officio Vice-
Consul for His Majesty's Foreign Office. In 1904 it was considered advisable
to raise his consular status to that of Consul with an extended jurisdiction.
Since then, however, owing to quarantine difficulties and to the want of
adequate facilities for visiting the outlying portions of his charge our
representative has been unable to extend his practical attention further south
east than Minab and the field covered by his present report is consequently
curtailed to that extent.
The two most prominent incidents recorded during the year have been
the linking up of Bunder Abbas with
the Telegram Cable system of the Gulf
and a long and troublesome dispute with
the Persian Government in connection therewith.
Our difficulties were, it is believed, mainly due to the sinister influence
and advice of the newly appointed Russian Consul, Monsieur Ovseenko, who
in February 1906 arrived in Bunder Abbas from Meshed and Kerman with a
considerable flourish of trumpets to inaugurate the Russian Consulate there;
Russian interests having previously been in the hands of a Persian subject,
the Sadeed-es-Sultaneh, formerly Karguzar of Bushire and well known as an
astute but unscrupulous intriguer.
I need do no more than make brief mention of this protracted dispute as
the details are fully set forth in Lieutenant Shakespear's report.
Another tiresome correspondence with the Persian Government in connec-
Hei) . ain tion with our telegraph station at Henjam
has been dealt with under Bushire, as,
owing to its frequently urgent nature, it necessarily fell to the Resident to deal
with it direct.
The Bunder Abbas-Kerman caravan route continued to be insecure
The insecurity of trade route. throughout the year, and, spite of
repeated assurances given by the Central
Government to His Majesty's Legation, all sorts of illegal imposts which
niegai imposts. should have been absolutely suppressed on
the introduction of the new Customs
Tariff under the Convention of 1903 were persistently levied by the local
authorities on the ground that they had been taken into account in the Annual
Revenue Schedule formulated by the Central Government. It is hoped that
ere long the constant representations and protests of the Ecsidency and His
Majesty's Legation will result in their final abolition.
iv.— Persian This tract is the Ultima Thule of the Shah's territory, and inhabited as
Mekran Coast. ^ is ^ an race stron g Bedouin instincts and a rooted antipathy to
its Persian overlords, it is hardly surprising that the administrative control
exercised over it by the Central Government is of the slenderest character ;
and in the result the poverty-stricken country, often racked as it is from year
to year with the miseries of famine, becomes a cockpit of petty inter-tribal
dissension and rapine, based usually on the rivalries of the petty " Mirs"
who are incessantly struggling for mastery one over the other.
As far as the Telegraph line is concerned, however, the year has been a
Safety of the Telegraph line. quiet one and no damage has been done
to the wire. The fact is no doubt that
these courtly bush-rangers, the " Mirs,'* the chief among whom are subsidised
by the Telegraph Department for obliging their adherents to respect the
sanctity of the wire, place considerable value on their modest but regular