'Administration Report of the Persian Gulf for the Year 1938' [‎19r] (37/60)

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with a capital of rials 18,000,000 (£225,000), 52 per cent, of which will be sub
scribed by the Iranian Government and the remainder by Dutch interests.
In December Dutch agents of the new company visited Bandar Abbas and
selected a site for the canning factory An East India Company trading post. .
In April a local company with a capital of rials 10,000 (£1,250) acquired
the Bandar Abbas agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of the Tobacco Monopoly.
Economic conditions. —The cost of living remained at a high level. The
local harvest was not good and prices of essential foodstuffs showed a slight
increase on the previous year.
V. MILITARY AND MARINE.
The Bandar Abbas garrison, which is included in the Kerman Brigade,
t^ok part in the Bashakird operations in January-February. The threatened
insurrec- tion staged by Abdul Hussain Kameran and his followers, who
inhabit the Bashakird-Rudbar district a bout 45 miles north-east of Minab, was
successfully quelled without a shot being fired. The Iranian sloops " Babr "
and 14 Shahrukh " also took part in these operations. About 100 old rifles
were handed in by the rebels and, it is said, rials 40,000 were paid to the
Brigadier. No other punishment seems to have been inflicted.
The Kerman Brigadier inspected the local garrison on the 9th June (with
Sar Kashkar Atabaki, Director of Medical Services) and again on the 5th
August.
Serwan Ali Sarba'z was in command of the local troops up to 2nd April
when he was relieved by Sargord Azizi.
Conscription. —The Bandar Abbas committee commenced its annual
session on the 7th October. 106 discharged conscripts returned from Charbar
in October and 159 new men were sent to that station in November.
Internal Security. —Security along the Bandar Abbas-Kerman motor road
and other principal trade routes was well maintained throughout the year.
Iranian Navy. —All units visited this port at intervals during the year.
VI. COMMUNICATIONS.
Roads. —No new roads from Bandar Abbas to the interior were opened
during the year.
In April a party of road engineers from Tehran re-surveyed the Bandar
Abbas-Minab road, at present a rough road for motors. No improvements
have yet been made.
The Bandar Abbas-Shiraz road via. Lar was little used during the past
year.
VII. SHIPPING.
136 steamers with an aggregate of 503,455 tons (gross) entered and clear
ed at the port of Bandar Abbas during 1938.
The distribution was as follows ;—
Nationality Tonnage.
British ............ 410,913
German ............ 62,605
Danish ............ 13,476
Japanese ............ 10,490
Greek 5,971
The B. I. S. N. Co.'s subsidiary mail service steamers called at this port
weekly throughout the year both on the upward and downward Gulf sailings.
G. A. FALCONER, Major,
Bandar Abbas ;
His Majesty's Consul for Kerman and Bandar Ahhas.
6th February 1939.