'Administration Reports 1925-1930' [‎56v] (117/418)

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hands of his senior subordinates and interpreter, and to the merchants and
public having business with his department he is said to be rarely acces
sible and little known.
Though Haji Amanullah Khan Ardalan remained on as assistant to
Major Hail, the latter brought with him to Fars, and posted as heads of
sections, several notherners, who had served under him at Meshed, and in
whom he placed all his confidence. As like him they were entirely new
to southern Persian conditions, and as political and administrative con
ditions in Fars are far behind those of Khurasan ^n development and smooth
ness of working, it is not surprising that l)y Major Hall s own avowal in
conversation, he finds things difficult, and that friction with the public and
the other authorities has occurred at several points during the year.
In the spring and early summer of 1926 a bad impression of the good
faith of the local Finance administration was created by a grazing tax on
all caravan animals being farmed out all down the road from bliiraz to the
coast plain. This was not only a violation of the law recently passed by the
Majlis, the 'Abolition of Road-Toll act,' which specifically forbade the
taking of pasturage taxes; but on certain stretches of the road it was a new
charge on trade, and local exactions of the nature had in the past two years
been suppressed by the Road-guard department. Similarly Persian mer
chants were indignant, and the newspapers voluble over the persistence of
Major Hall and his staff in levying 'banderolle' taxes on opium, a 'per
capita' tax on mules at Kazarun, and other exactions, orders for the cessa
tion of which had been issued by the Ministry of Finance in Tehran : and
this, in spite of repeated steps taken by the deputies for Fars in Tehran
with the Ministry of Finance in having the orders publicly communicated
to the Department in Shiraz. In other instances, concerning the proper
ties and affairs of private individuals, settlements made by I)r. Millspaugh
and his officials in Tehran with the parties, were ignored and set aside by
the local administration in Fars.
The Finance Department by their desire to increase revenue and their
insistence on many demands for taxation, which were known to be irregular,
e.g., the grazing tax, abolished by the compounded Road Tax Act, made
themselves very unpopular in the Province.
Next, in June and July, friction arose with the Amir Lashkar and his
Chief of Staff over the taxation of the Qashqai clans, which are under a
Military Governor. Major Hall and his non-Farsi advisers, having as
certained from the Kalantars of the clans in an enquiry what sums were
extorted from them by the rapacious Military Governor of 1925 (who had
already been removed on account of complaints by the clans) wished the
Kalantars to sign bonds to pay not only those sums against which they had
protested, but in addition a sum as the assumed profit of the Kalantars in
running the clans, instead of the 60,000 Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , the annual scheduled tax
of the whole Qaslhqai tribe. This would have meant extracting 90 ; ,00(/
Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. from it. The Military Command refused to allow any responsi
bility by the Military {Governor for such heavy taxation being collected,
on the ground that military pressure at the request of the Finance Depart
ment might provoke disorders and an outburst. After the Kalantars had
been kept waiting about the town for some three months, early in August
Major Hall modified his demands to a sum, which came nearer the former
schedule.
All this, and other matters, coinciding with the campaign against
the United States Advisers in Tehran, led to ''public disgust" (as one
newspaper described it) with the officials of the Department, and plain
hometruths as to the confusion and corruption in its administration being
voiced in the local press in July and August.
In the autumn began the surveys of landed properties in the districts
nearer Shiraz for the re-assessment of land-tax under the new law at a
31 per cent- collection of average annual proceeds of four years' crops.
Survey officials have been sent to the districts and villages, to check their
information and form their own opinion as to their productivity, and assess