File 1283/1913 Pt 5 'MESOPOTAMIA TRADE Issue of new Trade Report' [‎107r] (209/270)

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British share was put at £176,698 out of a total of £2,325,000. The sixth
route via Lingah need not be taken into
^ vide Note on the Port of Lingab, Appendix ser i 0 us consideration since, although a
No. xvi (n). promising little trade is done at the port,
while the climate is tolerable, and the roadstead has some advantages over
Bushire and Bandar Abbas, yet communication with the interior is never likely
to develope, in consequence of the arid and mountainous nature of the
hinterland. Trade via the Nushki route (No. 7) will be helped by the extension
of the rail to Dalbandin, but the value of the trade is at present comparatively
insignificant and the development of this route has not much bearing upon the
main problem now under discussion.
73. Each of the four remaining routes has a special claim to consideration The four
both on commercial and political grounds and each may therefore be described l0u es>
briefly.
(2) Kermanshah via Khaniqin. As mentioned in paragraph 23 above, <6 ^ermanshah.
the requirements of the Baghdad- Khaniqin-Kermanshah route to Persia
governed the commercial situation in Mesopotamia before the war. Three-
quarters of the imports at Basrah went to Baghdad and the greater part were
destined for Persia. In normal times transport was fairly easy and sate as
compared with other routes in Persia. The distance by river from Basrah ^o
Baghdad is about 500 miles and from Baghdad to Kermanshah 2-0 As
far as Khaniqin, 95 miles, the road is quite passable for wheeled tramc and
not long ago a postal cart was running from Kermanshah to Ciasr-i-8mrin.
The population of Kermanshah has been estimated at about 60,000 persons an
the town is of considerable importance both strategically and commercia y,
since it is nearly equidistant from Tabriz, Enzeli, Teheran and Baghda wit
which places it has good communications, besides being thedistnbuting centre
for the districts of Kurdistan and Hamadan. The town of Hamadan, which in
the past has been described as the <t ambar’ , {storehouse) of Persia, used to
receive about three-quarters of the imports coming via Kermanshah and is the
source of supply for the markets of many towns. Another estimate states that
only one-fifth of the imports remains in Kermanshah, the remainder being
distributed from Hamadan and Sultanabad and Burujird.
As regards exports, Kermanshah is one of the great grain producing dis
tricts of Persia and formerly used to have a large yearly surplus. e 1 wl f ^r ! ,
snows and the spring rains among the mountains of Kurdistan
as to render irrigation unnecessary, and the valleys are broad, ev .
in°dy fertile. The carpet trade of Hamadan is considerably on the increase,
while opium, gums, skins, almonds and other native products are o ““I 10 q
It is said that many years ago about one million pounds weight of wool used to
be exported annually to Baghdad. The wool export 'A^i ted in
about £2,100 and much wool which formerly went out of the country
'Hamadan carpet factories, but the splendid pasturage should mamtam ve y
large flocks if a settled administration were introduced and e p . ,
available The traffic on the road is swelled by the numbers of pilgrims and
by the transport of corpses to Kerbela, and the pilgrims, returning, carry uith
them quantities of merchandise. The value of British f f ^
Kermanshah route just before the war was estimated at more than a millio
pounds and the exports were probably worth at least £120,uu.
It is obvious that if British superiority is to be maintained n • t
of the north-west and the centre of Persia, very special attentonmustbe paid
will be given to this route and British interests should p
markets which it supplies.
74 (2) Mohanmerah via Ahwaz to Bizful and Shustar on the one hand ^
obvious from its geographical position standing, as it does, about midway