"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٦‎٦] (١٢٦٢/٩٨٣)

2466
Difficulties
connected
with money
orders in
Turkish
'Iraq, 1883-
1889.
1886.
1889.
Articles pro*
hihited
Turkish
'Iraq.
over to the Turkish Customs or returned to the senders. The time-
honoured privilege of landing the British mails direct at the British
post office has been maintained both at Basrah and Baghdad; but it is
regarded with disfavour by the Turks.
Turkey adhered to the Universal Postal Conventions of Vienna
(1891) and Washington (1897), but she is not a party to any Conven
tion or Agreement relating to the Parcels Post Service. Parcels for
Turkey are accepted in India since the 1st of January 1896.
The matter of money orders at Baghdad is a somewhat difficult one,
chiefly on account of the remoteness of the place and of a prohibition
issued by the Turkish Government in 1883 against the importation of
foreign silver into the country. In order to obtain funds for the pay
ment of money orders drawn on the Baghdad post office, the Political
Resident, with whom the responsibility for the arrangements rests, is
from time to time obliged to issue bills. These are sometimes accepted
at a discount and sometimes at a premium, and special regulations have
been found necessary to meet both cases.
In 1886, when discounts prevailed, it was decided that commission
should be levied at a rate of one per cent, in excess of the rate of dis
count in order to maintain the rate of net commission at one per cent.,
and that when discount exceeded two per cent, the issue of money
orders should be discontinued.
In 1889, when the Residents bills were saleable at a premium and
money accumulated too fast in the Residency treasury, the Resident was
empowered to raise the commission on money orders, both at Baghdad
and Basrah, to two per cent, when bills on India were selling at a
premium of one per cent., and to stop the issue of money orders at both
places when the premium rose above one per cent.
In 1894 it was ascertained that the importation into Turkish ^Iraq
of the following objects was prohibited :—arms and ammunition, poison
ous drugs, worn clothes, articles likely to carry disease, and figures
(other than simple portraits) of royal personages or other notabili
ties ; to these have now been temporarily added a number of other
articles considered capable of conveying plague. The exportation of
antiquities is illegal; but it was carried on to some extent through the
Indian post offices until 1895, when the practice was discovered and
stopped by means of stricter rules regarding the acceptance of parcels.
Books imported, except those obtained by foreign consular officers for
their personal or official use, are subject to examination by the Turkish
Director of Public Instruction in the capacity of censor; and in 1896 all
book parcels received by letter mail were regularly sent him for scrutiny.
Subsequently the custom fell into desuetude ; but at some time before
1903, when it was discovered by the Indian postal authorities that
objectionable publications were entering Baghdad by the Indian book
post, the British Political Resident assumed the responsibility of examin
ing the mails and of returning unapproved books to the senders
through the Dead Letter Office. Newspapers and other publications
prohibited by the Turkish Government are regularly consigned to the
Dead Letter Office; in the black list of these there are nearly ^00
names inserted between the years 1899 and 1903 alone.