'Administration Report of the Persian Gulf for the Year 1937' [‎14v] (28/72)

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Iranian doctor, and the Church Missionary Society's hospital. The present
Municipal Hospital was found to be quite unsuitable and inadequately equip
ped for demonstration purposes.
14. Much attention continues to be given to the outdoor training of
boys and girls. There are now eighteen troops of Boy Scouts and Girl
Guides, with 656 members. A local Sports and Youth Commission has had
monthly subscriptions amounting to a large sum promised by industrial
and trading companies, merchants and cinemas. It is proposed to purchase
land and lay out a sports ground. A garden planted by the Municipality
on the site of an old cemetery was considered for the purpose but it has been
condemned as insanitary by the local Health Officer and by the military
doctors.
15. No cases of interference with traffic on the main roads have been
reported, but burglaries have been frequent in the town, perhaps not un
connected with the vicinity of the barracks to the houses visited. Several
Europeans have suffered in this way during the year. Cases of robbery in
the Bazaar have been reported in the Press. No doubt the rise in the cost of
living and the increasing poverty of large numbers of the people contribute
to this state of affairs.
16. The Head of the Municipality was arrested early in August and
shortly afterwards several members of his staff were dismissed, of whom some
were imprisoned. A month later the Governor General was ordered to go
to Tehran. He was arrested in Isfahan and has been in prison since. The
Directors of the Agricultural Department and of the Post and Telegraph Depart
ment and the local Managers of the Grain Purchasing Office and of the wool
and cotton Company were dismissed, and shortly afterwards the Head of the
Finance Department and the Director of the Registration Department were
transferred. The Officer in Command of Road Guards has also been sus
pended. As the result of investigations into the peculations of the late
Governor General and of other officials, many arrests have been made and the
prison is now full to overflowing. The fall of the Governor General appears
to have been largely in connexion with the failure to settle tribes in fixed
areas and the acceptance of bribes to permit the usual migrations, while false
reports were sent to Tehran. The dealings of merchants, butchers, taxi
drivers and others with the Municipality and with the Governor General,
and the disposal of funds collected at the time of the Shah's visit have been
under examination. The Court for dealing with Officials is still sitting in
Shiraz.
17. At the same time, the General Officer Commanding the Fars Divi
sion was arrested and a military tribunal, which is also still at work, has
ordered the arrest of many officers and the examination of merchants and
landowners who have had improper dealings with the military authorities.
The tribal settlement arrangements and connivance at smuggling and its pos
sible connexion with unrest amongst the tribes of Kuhgilu and in Laristan
were the main causes of these investigations.
18. Tribal Affairs. —In the Spring a civil Governor of the Qashgai tribes
was appointed and he later became Director of Tribal Settlement for all
Fars. It was proposed to abolish all the military sub-Governors. As the
result of long tours of inspection carried out through the summer by a General
from the Ministry of War, this official was arrested along with other high civil
and military officials, as already described. There had been many irregu
larities and the^re was much discontent throughout the tribal areas. Ex
cessive agricultural difficulties had been made by the Authorities in a year of
drought and scarcity. The growing of opium poppies was forbidden. Flocks
are said to be less numerous, as crops have to be sown for fodder when free
pasturage is no longer available owing to the restriction of migration. For
similar reasons lambskins have deteriorated in quality and in quantity and
horse-breeding has diminished. More recently, owing to their extreme
poverty, and to the difficulties of dealing with the officials of the Skin Mono
poly Company, it is said that female lambs are being killed for food by vil
lagers in some districts. The former arrangements by which country pro
duce was bartered for the necessities of life, piece goods, sugar and tea, have