‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎440r] (878/949)

[ 7 ]
Dated Kerman, the 27th December 1904.
Prom—A. Gleadowe Newcomen, Resident Commercial Mission,
To—The Secretary, Indian Tea Cess Committee.
In continuation of my last letter to you dated Bahramabad, 12 th instant,
I have the honour to report t he arrival of the Mission here. We entered
Kerman on the morning of the 16th, after a very cold journey in the course of
which the thermometer marked, at night, an average of 21 degrees of frost.
M e were extremely well received by the Governor-General, who sent a very big
Peishwas some miles out to meet us and to conduct us through the city to the
British Consulate, which stands about two miles out of Kerman to the East.
Kerman is a rather large and well built town with a population computed
at from 60,000 by Major Sykes to between 90,000 and 100,0U0 by the Persian
authorities. It forms a distributing centre to most of the lar^e towns in the 18
districts of the province of Kerman and a transport dep 6 t to Yezd, Bam and the
Khorassan province.
We have unfortunately found the gathering of satisfactory information
difficult, in fact almost impossible, work.
In Kerman and in the whole of South East Persia Indian tea seems at a
discount, very little indeed being used, except by the poorer classes, for blending
with Lamsars, though very great quantities are imported through Bunder Abbas
and along the Quetta-Nushki route for consumption in Khorassan and the
North, some of this transit trade passing through Kerman. Locally, however,
Indian teas, quite apart from the fact of their being too strong and harsh for the
palate of the people, are unfashionble.
One of the leading merchants here, Mirza Ali, informed me that about 1 pie
in the rupee was used of Indian tea in Kerman ; and that only by very poor
people, and then he went on to say that some time back a firm from India had
sent some tea for distribution and to try and introduce it to the people and that
the saying goes that all who drank it got ill. The popular idea seems to be
that Indian tea is not suited to the requirement of the place because of the
dryness of the climate, its consumption causing intense nervousness. How far
there is any truth in this I cannot say. In Khorassan and up North, where
it is extremely cold and damp, Indian tea of the Souchong type is in request.
During my interview with the Parsee Anjuman I was told that Major
Phillot, Acting Consul here, had given them samples of tea, resembling the tea
in canisters given me for presentation by the Tea Cess Committee, and that
they had tried the tea and found it good, but had not been able to bring it into
favour, owing to the fact that it was not thought fashionable. I cannot help
repeating, however, that if India could produce, or doctor teas suitable to the
tastes of Southern Persia, teas that would be light in colour no matter how
long they were infused, free from the presence of any pronounced bitterness
more of the nature of the old highly (artificially I believe) flavoured China
teas and packed after the style of Java pekoes in small chests and boxes they
would probably take. If the tea trade in South-East Persia, where Eussia
can hardly be said at present to be a competitor (though she may easily
become one via Meshed, having a railway running along the Erontier) is
to be pushed, now that the field is open to us. Agents at Sirjan, Bafsinjan,
Kerman and Bam, Khojas for choice are necessary. Teas might be imported
in October [through Bunder Abbas. Suitable Indian blacks and flowery
pekoes in bulk, for the saving of customs dues. Blending and repacking would
be done after the Customs had been passed in packages of 5 and 10 lbs. also of
1 and 2 lbs. A proportion of the more expensive sort might he packed m fancy
tins with locks and also packets of lower class teas for poor people valued at
say 1 or 2 krans each. tt- ^ x •
The possession of Khoja agents, who would correspond in Hindnstam,
would do away with the trouble of carrying on correspondence in the I ersian
language. Another satisfactory way of working might he found by tfie
Committee entering into correspondence with the “ Sherket ITmumi, a ra mr
important Persian Trading Company, whose headquarters aie a e nan anc
which has agencies everywhere in Persia as well as in Bombay. _ ese peop e
might be inclined to take up an agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. for Indian teas or wor m wi e
Indian Tea Cess Committee in pushing Indian teas. Enquiries wi sa is y
you as to the status of these people.