"تقارير إدارية ١٩٠٥-١٩١٠" [ظ‎‎١‎٧‎٨] (٦١٦/٣٦١)

48
ADMINISTEATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL RESIDENCY
have made an annual pilgrimage to the Nijni Novgorod fair, where the
make their purchases and dispose of their goods. It would be possible /
change this, now very unnatural, proceeding, but for the fact that the Russian
merchants give credit and frequently long credit, thus enabling the Persiai
merchant to delay his payment, a fact which always appeals to him even
though he knows that he must be paying interest for his delay.
Notwithstanding that 1 have written pointing out the value of thp
Hamadan and Kermanshah markets, and that I have requested that Chambers
of Commerce should be sent copies of my letters, I have up to date received
no enquiries and no samples, except from two firms whom I approached
direct. In woollen goods there is a market of £30,000 annually which is
almost entirely in foreign hands and which total could be considerably
increased, but apparently British merchants are frightened by the unsettled
condition of the country. As a matter of fact the state of the country makes
very little difference where important and reputable merchants are concerned
It is, further, as safe to deal with such men as with their confreres in India
for they cannot afford to leave unmet bills which are due, any more than
could a merchant in a big business either in England or in India. The
mistake most foreign firms make is leaving their work to agents who are
Persians or Jews, but in either case unreliable men; thus bad debts crop up
through sales to merchants who are unreliable as payers.
The whole question turns on agency and if several companies would
despatch here a good agent for a year as a trial, they would speedily be doing
a large business, since not only would they supply the big merchants but the
smaller fry and the retail sellers also. I wrote to the Cawnpore Woollen Mills
in the above terms, but nothing has come of it. I then approached Messrs.
Blockey, Cree & Co., agents at Baghdad, and they have referred the question
home to their head office, telling me that they have always known that the
time must come for such a move. In the meantime, Messrs. Berk, Puttmann
& Co., the German Baghdad firm, have, as I am informed, taken a house in
Kermanshah on a year's lease, with a view to starting an agency of the kind
I have been suggesting for so long.
There is a special opening for cheap boots and shoes not of the hobnail
or farmer type, but tEe ordinary Oxford shoe and boot, both being of strong
make with toes inclined to be pointed.
When there is a branch of the Bank at Hamadan, it will give a great
fillip to our trade. It is difficult to understand why one has not been opened
before now. Kermanshah is a paying branch and Hamadan has about five
times the turnover that Kermanshah has.
European Dr. Bongrand arrived from Tehran on the 23rd April and after a short
visitors. stay proceeded to Kasr-i-Shirin to institute a quarantine against plague on
the frontier, in which work he was assisted by M. Cesari, at that time employ
ed by the Customs department. Dr. Bongrand returned to Kermanshah with
M. Cesari in June, having suffered greatly from fever, and returned to
Tehran some time in July during my absence. M. Cesari quarrelled with
the Customs department over some details and was finally dismissed. He
died at the end of the year.
Dr. Kurt Jung, Commercial Delegate from the German Embassy at
Constantinople, was deputed by the German Goveriiment to study trade pros
pects in Persia. He arrived on the 29th April and left for Hamadan (thence
to Ispahan) on the 6th May.
Lieutenant Williams, 4th Cavalry, Army Remount Department, arrived
at Kermanshah on the 6th June in command of a deputation for purchasing
mules. Lieutenant Farran, 4th Cavalry, his assistant, arrived with the main
party of the deputation on the 14th June. Lieutenant Farran was invalided
home, leaving Kermanshah on the 30th September. Lieutenant Williams
purchased some 500 mules and left for Baghdad in the middle of October.