Coll 28/39(2) ‘Persia. Printed Correspondence, 1937–’ [‎32r] (63/320)

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61
l>y the Consulate for the lease of houses, payment of rent, engagement of a garden*
er and guard, and supply of furniture on behalf of the Honourable the Political
Resident. Other activities included an exhaustive report on the production of
gum tragacanth for the information of a Cambridge professor and the collection of
samples of cotton from different parts of the district for the Institute of Plant In
dustry at Indore.
61. Subscriptions were sent by the Acting Consul to the King George Jubilee
Trust and to the Earl Haig’s Fund as the result of collections in Isfahan and in
Shiraz.
Foreign interests.
62. After the British Community, the German colony is the most important
in Shiraz. There are two families established for many years, one of whom owns
a flour mill. The other one was formerly land agent to the Qawam-ul-Mulk. A
German is incharge of the Wine Factory An East India Company trading post. controlled by the Government and two
Germans are employed at the School of Arts and Crafts under the Education De
partment. German mechanics are in charge of machinery at the Pars Electric
Company’s spinning mill.
63. There is an Austrian veterinary surgeon established in Shiraz.
64. An Italian engineer is employed by the Municipality and by the Cotton
Monopoly Company.
65. American archaeologists under Professor Schmidt were at Persepolis in
the winter of 1935-36, but work had not been resumed by the end of 1936.
66. The Bahrein Oil Company has been endeavouring to obtain houses in
Shiraz for summer quarters for their American and European employees. Several
Americans visited Shiraz during the summer. They have also been trying to make
arrangements for supplies of fruit and other local produce to be shipped from Bushire.
It seems unlikely that the difficulties of transport and of export regulations will
be surmounted.
67. Foreign visitors to the district during the year 1936 included the U. S.
S. R. Ambassador and the Italian and Roumanian Ministers for Tehran : the
German Minister at Bagdad : the members of the French Air Mission in Tehran ;
and various archaeologists of American, French and Belgian nationality.
Miscellaneous remarks.
68. Active work at Persepolis stopped in October and all the Americans de
parted, leaving a Russian photographer in charge. Mr. McCown was sent from Rey
to be in residence in the event of the Shah’s visit taking place, but left again at
the end of the year.
69. The Tomb of Darius (Naksh-i-Rustum) can now be reached by car on one
of the tracks made for collecting beet.
70. The Louvre Mission was working at Shahpur during part of the year.
71. The maximum temperatures recorded in 1936 was 98° in September, as
compared with 98° in August of the previous year. The lowest temperature re
corded in the winter of 1935-36 was 24°. In mid-December 1936 the thermometer
fell to 22° on several days. The cold was unusually early as well as extreme end
some damage was reported to fruit trees, while many early seedlings perished.
72. The rainfall for the winter season of 1935-36 was 4 inches less than in the
preceding year. Prospects for the present season indicate even greater shortage
of water.
British Consulate,
Shiraz ; A. E. WATKINSON,
The 28th January, 1937. II. B. M. Consul,
( 46 )
(Enclosure in Foreign Office covering letter dated 31st May 1937.)
Letter from Viscount Chiltson, to Mr. Eden, No. 118, dated 30th March.
Of all the neighbours of the Soviet Union, Iran is the least-often mentioned
in the Soviet press. With the exception of a brief, but surprisingly warm, tribute
to the late Minister of Finance, Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Davar, I have seen scarcely
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