'File 10/8 Overseas trade enquiries' [‎186r] (372/495)

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deal of the actual buying and selling is done through
brokers who take the pearls from merchant to merchant,
and offer them for sale. The brokers are given a
commission from the buyer, or b T r special arrangement from
both parties. The normal total year's catch is
difficult to state exactly. It is understood that in
1927 pearls to the approximate value of £600,000 were
brought to London, and at a rough estimate, a year's
catch can be calculated as worth between one and three
million pounds.
3. The only nev.spapers likely to circulate in
the district concerned are the following, which are
published in Basra:-
(a) The Times of Mesopotamia (Daily).
Advertisements - Rs.3/- per inch.
(b) Al-nash fl-jadid (Bi-weekly).
Advertisements - no fixed charges.
No ma^zines or similar periodicals are published
locally. It is well to point out that these papers
do not circulate extensively among Arab readers in the
Grulf, and generally speaking, the local press cannot be
considered as an important factor in business.
4. In addition to the above, there is a certain
amount of confidential information about the pearl trade
on file at the Department of Overseas Trade. This
could be communicated orally to a responsible
representative of your firm if he would afford the
undersigned the courtesy of an interview, which should
preferably be arranged by telephone.
Yuurs, ic.,
(Sgd.) T.L. RELKN.
for the Comptroller-General.
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