File 1283/1913 Pt 1 'Persian Gulf: Anglo-German Commercial Competition' [‎324r] (251/272)

i 5
.vas sufficient that a British aeent made an nfW fnr
largely owing to official British influence with the district Khans ^ com Pe‘e,
Shipments from Bushire for the official year—March lot 1-13— according tr,
customs documents, were by-— J y 12 according to
Wheat.
Barley.
Dixon & Co.
Tons.
3,798
Tons.
1,830
Messrs. Malcolm
•••
B983
^39
Messrs. Gray Paul & Co.
409
■ • •
„ Ziegler & Co.
402
• • •
Others
• • • ••• •« «
336
161
Total ...
6,928
2,630
while Wonckhaus & Co. shipped tons 7,010 and 4,577-
A very serious position is revealed when we see that four British firms of
German methods of competition. tried experience cannot purcnase as much
as one German firm. There is a mass of
evidence as to the manner in which British competition was stifled
{a) The advances to tribesmen alluded to in my letter of October 1st,
1911, and commented on in Section 4 {a) of the Board of Trade
Memorandum were not, as the Board supposed, advances against
growing crops,^ but advances in the German Office at Bushire
against grain just brought into the wharf by tribesmen sellers,
who flocked to the German Office knowing that they would give
any prices that were asked.
(b) In the summer of 1911, when reserve coin (with which all purchases
outside Bushire have to be made) in the Imperial Bank of Persia
had sunk very low, and the Bank was refusing to buy drafts of
British firms, the German credits became exhausted; but they
forced the hands of the Bank by getting fresh credits opened in
the London Branch of Imperial Bank, with the result that the
Bank’s reserves were opened to the German firm, and still more
firmly closed to British firms.
In June 1911, the Germans were selling drafts on London at a rate of
ij krans (about 7^.) less per £\ sterling than the Bank’s rates.
They shipped krans to Bushire from Karachi, Bombay and
Busreh.
(c) While on the one hand the grain purchase was often far below the
quality that British firms would buy and a great deal was weevilled
and had to be re-cleaned, the German dealings with Persians
were on a scale of liberality impossible for British firms. They
engaged additional premises at any price asked, and at the end
of December 1911 paid several hundred pounds as a bonus to all
their German and Persian employes in Bushire, an unprecedented
proceeding.
(d) Reports from Basreh showed that they were “contracting out pur
chases to influential persons on liberal terms ”.