Coll 28/41 ‘Persia. Trade Reports. Kerman 1924–’ [‎80v] (160/313)

6
unsafe. Rawar, a town some 140 miles to the north,
on the Kerman-Meshed caravan route, can be reached
by touring cars.
All the motor roads in the province suffered serious
damages from the floods of last July. The Kerman-
Bandar Abbas motor road was washed away in
many places near the Tang-i-Zagh, causing interrup
tion to the mail service.
The bi-weekly mail service between Kerman and
Bandar Abbas was changed to a weekly one in the
month of September, owing to the previous postal
contract having expired and there being no offers
for a new one. The bi-weekly service was eventually
restored in the month of November after the autho
rities had sanctioned an increase of Tumans 200 per
mensem on the previous contract.
New post offices were opened at Zarand and Rawar
at the end of 1932.
(6) Construction of new roads. —The work on the
Kerman-Khabis motor alignment, via the Sirch
Pass, has not been resumed again since it was post
poned in October last. It is said that about one
half of the Pass has so far been made practicable
for touring cars.
No other new roads were taken in hand during the
year.
(c) Up-keep of old. —The Kerman-Bandar Abbas
motor road was slightly improved at Tang-i-Zagh
in the early part of the year.
Work of repairs on all motor roads has been
constantly carried on and damages done by rain, etc.,
have been promptly attended to.
(d) Distances and average rates (summer and winter)
on the chief trade routes.—Vide Appendix V.
(e) Effect of motor on animal transport, rates and
turn-over. —Animal transport is steadily disappearing
on the motor roads. Even in the case of places not
accessible by motor lorries direct, a longer and round
about motor road is usually preferred. For example,
the direct caravan route to Meshed, via Rawar, is
now used less and less, and goods are often sent to
and fro via Tehran by motor transport.
Owing to the general stagnation of trade and the
scarcity of cargo, the rates of motor transport were
ludicrously low during the year. For example,
in the cases of Kerman-Bandar Abbas and Kerman-
Yezd, the rates prevailing at the end of the year Were
less than half of what they had been six months
before.
The turn-over is, therefore, infinitesimal, with
hardly any margin for profit.
(/) dir Service—whether used for commercial service.
—No aeroplanes visited Kerman during the year.
(g) Necwn'ty.—Desultory robberies continued on
the Kerman-Bandar Abbas road, chiefly by Farsi
robbers, during the year, but to a lesser extent than
before. Security on trade routes has, however,
improved considerably and a number of well-known
robbers were caught and severely dealt with, in some
cases receiving capital punishment. No robberies
took place on the other roads in the province.
9. Social.
(a) Standard of living. —There has been no im
provement in the standard of living in the province,
which continues to be distinctly low. The damages
done to qanats by the floods, however, gave emi^v-
ment to a considerable number of coolies A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory. , who w®Ri
otherwise be without jobs. The construction work
on the various new roads in the town also helped to
ameliorate the situation.
(b) Unemployment. —The number of the un
employed decreased during the year for reasons
mentioned above.
(c) Evidence of emigration. —Nil.
(d) Public health and hygiene. —There has been no
appreciable improvement in the sanitary condi
tions in the province. The Director-General of the
Health Department, however, paid a visit to Kerman
during the year, and the vaccination agents have
been more active in the performance of their duties.
Typhus in an epidemic form raged in the poorer
quarters of the town between the months of April
and July 1932, and an epidemic of influenza caused
a number of deaths in February 1933.
(e) Municipal services. —The metalling of the
main road cut through the town in 1929 and the
other new roads branching from this is not yet
completed. Trees were planted on the two sides
of the above roads at the end of the year, only a
few of which have taken, and water from a neigh
bouring qanat was rented for this purpose.
A large circus at one end of the main road was
taken in hand, but the constructions had to be
postponed for want of funds.
A number of ditches round the city were filled in
and the plots thus reclaimed are now being offered
for sale or given as compensation to parties whose
houses were demolished to make way for the new
roads. Plants for other new roads in the city have
been prepared and sent up to Tehran for approval.
The funds at the disposal of the Municipality are
far too small to meet all the above expenditure.
The regular yearly budget for the Kerman Muni
cipality amounts to Rials 120,000. The muni
cipal taxes collected locally have not so far
exceeded Rials 150,000 a year. An additional
yearly allotment of Rials 200,000 had been sanc
tioned from Tehran for construction work on new
roads in the town. The local authorities had applied
to Tehran for the increase of the latter amount, but
received an intimation, at the end of the year, that,
owing to shortage of funds, this would, on the
contrary, be reduced to Rials 80,000.
The local authorities are, therefore, endeavouring
to find the deficit for their requirements locally.
Steps are being taken to collect the house-tax of 3
per cent on the annual rent, which was to be intro
duced in March 1931 and which, except in a very