"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٤‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٦٠٤)

1449
iwa :
object of preventing scarcity at that great pilgrim port. In the M mi tali k
troubles of 1864 large amounts of grain collected for this purpose by
the Turkish authorities were plundered ; and two years later, the orders
for export being still in force, there were serious complaints at Baghdad
of inconveniences and abuses to which they gave rise. In this connection
Colonel Kemball, the British Political Agent at Baghdad, reported as
follows at the end of November 1866 :
Owing to tlae operations of the Local Government to effect the promised supply of
grain to Jeddah, the prices of wlieat and barley have risen to double the ordinary rates,
and considerable discontent has been engendered in consequence amongst the town
populations. This feeling is justified by the well-founded conviction that the distress
which is experienced is not the result of any real scarcity, but has been occasioned by
the competition of the Government and the monopoly to which it has had recourse of
the means of transport in order to secure the consignments required. Appeals made to
His Excellency by deputations of the people, including a mob of women, have been
productive of little relief, and His Excellency observed to the French Consular
Dragoman that high prices ruling temporarily were in the present case no evil, seeing
that, owing to a famine in India, grain might otherwise be drained out of the country.
It may be inferred that His Excellency's measures have been taken with a design, the
more especially that the shipments to Jeddah for the current year have been completed,
and that the grain now somewhat prematurely stored is destined for exportation next
autumn. I need hardly inform your Lordship that Namik Pasha's fears, real or
pretended, with respect to the famine in the distant districts of Bengal, are wholly
groundless. No vessels have come this year to Bussorah to carry away grain to India,
though the charterers of one or two vessels seeking their annual cargoes for the
Mauritius have been this year disappointed. I have before expressed an opinion that the
supply of grain to Jeddah, regarded as a mercantile speculation and freed from Gov
ernment action, could, under proper management, be turned to excellent account
in developing the resources of this country, but in the sense of encouraging ex
tended cultivation, and not by hampering trade and agriculture, as under the existing
In the summer of 1864- Namiq Pasha established a service of Arab
messengers to run twice a week between Basrah and Diwaniyah, and it
may safely be assumed that the latter place was at the time connected in
some similar or superior fashion with Baghdad. It is probable that this
post was instituted for official purposes only, and it may have been only
a temporary expedient for the rapid transmission of news during the
military operations of that year, when Diwaniyah was an inportant
garrison and troops had been sent to Basrah also.
At the present day, when money is required in Turkey for public
expenditure which cannot be met from the ordinary resources of the State,
subscriptions are commonly invited ; and these are sometimes collected
from public servants, after their consent has been obtained by official
pressure, in the form of deductions from their pay. Fifty years ago the
Turkish
between
Basrah and
Baghdad,
1864.
post
Confiscation
by the
Turkish
Government
of the pay
of their
employes for
August 18C6»