File 3443/1914 Pt 4 'Persia: East Persia affairs; German agents' [‎58r] (121/368)

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ability to provide grain he will find that contractor will throw
two or three months and ask for . greatly enhanced rates on
are rising.
v up his contract every
i grounds that prices
Major duric^e has consistently opposed my policy and has enunciated by
maxim(s) that Government should pay no regard to cost in war time and that the
only factor to be considered is speedy collection of supplies. Political considerations
(e g. the production of famine and not by unnecessarily high rates, the retarding of
the collection of supplies and the necessity of employing troops to keep order over
a population which at present is perfectly friendly) he totally ignores.
1 have resolutely set my face against paying more than 30 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. per kharwar
foi wheat, j et the people of Sistan just before supplies gave out had begun to pay
ladlhudas at the rate of 80 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. for small retailing quantity.
r lhis Consulate, I venture to claim, has justified its existence during the last
six months, having in this connection alone saved Government thousands of pounds
over supplies and rates of all kinds. If our advice is listened to it will continue
doing so.
Agent to the Governor-General in Baluchistan has just been informed that a
proposal to send grain here from Kharan is gladly welcomed by me.
Whether Sistan will be called upon to assist in feeding a Sarhaddi contingent of
military police, I do not yet know.
(7)
No. 281-C., dated Sistan, the 27th April 1916.
From— Major F. B. Prideaux, C.I.E., His Britannic Majesty’s Consul for Sistan and
Kain, Sistan,
To— The Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign and Political Department,
Simla.
With reference to my telegram No. 251-C., dated the 25th April 1916, on the
subject of supply contracts for the troops
and levies in Sistan I have the honour to
Serial No 6.
forward herewith a copy of my telegram No. 147-C., date the 5th April 1916,
to the address of Brigadier-General Dyer together with a copy of telegram No.
193-X, dated 4th April 1916, to which mine was the reply.
2 . I also enclose a copy of the contract which I arranged between Colonel
Wikely, Commanding in Sistan, and Messrs. Chuhar Mai Jawala Singh and Company,
in February 1916, after we had definitely assured ourselves that neither this Hindu
firm nor Messrs. Muhammad Ali and Brothers, their rivals, possessed any more grain
stocks or could collect the requisite quantities with the staff of employes at their
disposal from the district of Sistan.
3 . An identical contract has been in force between Messrs. Chuhar Mai Jawala
Singh and Company and myself for the supply of cleaned and crushed grain and flour
to all the levies in this consular district.