‘File 28/42 Persian Gulf War Trade Bureau Reports’ [‎65v] (130/194)

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via Iraa. They stated that there was enormous scope for this ,
trade and swrested that if no permit was forthcoming, the
addressee should smuggle out the goods. (Previous ref. Report #
No.27 page 1).
3 . Gritic ism of_thu_contrp 1 on t r ad e of tea by,the
U.II.C.G. and th e Go ve rnment o f- I ndig. ■ , The following extract
from a letter dated 9,9,1942 {"seen in the Bureau recently)
from I/Iirza Alined. IL'l Ispahan! Ltd.’, Calqita, to i.H. Ispahan'i,
Khiaban llonirich, Teheran, is of interest
"With regard to the United Kingdom Commercial
Corporation having the monopoly of the trade,
the" same is still being discussod.with the
G-overnment of India. All the Indian merchants
protest against the U.K.C.C. taking over the
private trade. We consider this to be unjust
and strong representations arc being made to
the Government of India in this direction.
It Is left to be seen whether His .Majesty’s.
Government will force, the Government of India ^
to bow to their demand as they hold the.
whipnand with regard to freight.
Coming to the question of. the reduction
of price by the Iranian Government on their
' holdings by 8 rials a packet, I have nothing
to comment except probably the Iranian Govorn-
■ 'merit-might have been induced to take over.
all their requirements of tea fpom the British
V .Government at a fixed price,cutting put -all the
■middle men and they making the distributors’ pro-
• fit at the other end. This the Iranian merchants
should protest as we are protesting here against
Government interference in ordinary trade,special
ly with neutral countries like Iran,Iraq,Egypt,etc.
We are quite, willing to be out of this trade,
■■ but we refuse to be sent out by the Government, -
lock, barrel and stock - with their interference
in the commodities that v r e have been dealing in for
the- last half a century .Every commodity is now on
the anvil of control.Some of them have been con
trolled to the detriment of the merchants.If by •
this control it helped the war efforts I would
noth have any objection,but control has brought
, nothing but mismanagement. ~ *
It is now left to the.Iranian merchants to
make representations to the British Consul for the..
Ministry of Supply Centre at Cairo to give us the
necessary freight' for the .20 and odd thousand cases
of different sales that we have in our books and it
is af so left.to the Iranian merchants to protest
with all the vehemence at their command against the.
, Government taking away•their business from them.
It is best to lodge protests,whether they may be
hoard today or not, it is a different matter. lot
if it is,, on record it will always be useful .to be
as a pointer to what the trade- thought when such
interference was forced on them."
4. Miscellaneous - .
(a) Impor t of goods- - into - Persi a aga inst expo rt of _ c a rpets
net p oss i bl e - mile enclosing a copy of invoice for 81 bales of .