"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٣‎٨‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٥٢٩)

386
Central
Persian
telegraph
line.
British tele
graph
subsidies in
Persian
Makr|n.
British
Commercial
Missions to
the Persian
Gulf region.
Mr.
Maclean's
mission.
under a former concession which had never been revoked. Subsequently
in May 1905 the permission of the Shah was obtained by His Britannic
Majesty's Minister at Tehran for the construction of a line from Han jam,
partly aerial (across Qishm Island) and partly submarine, to Bandar
'Abbas. This line, which was to be worked by Persian operatives and on
repayment of the cost of construction was to become the property of the
Persian Government, was completed before the close of the year.
An addition to the means of telegraphic communication between Persia
and India was undertaken in 1902 in the shape of a Central Persian tele
graph line ; but its bearing on the Persian Gulf was slight.
In 1899 an important change was made in connection with the tele?
graph subsidies paid to local chiefs in Persian Makran for the protection
of the land line traversing their districts. It consisted generally in a
redistribution of the money among a greater number of recipients than
before, some of the small chiefs in the immediate vicinity of the coast
from whom services were mostly required being now included, while the
shares of larger chiefs in the interior were correspondingly reduced.
In view of the increased mercantile activity of foreign nations in
Persia and the Persian Gulf region, special attention was devoted by His
Majesty's Government and the Government of India to British and
Indian trade in those parts, and two commercial missions were charged
with the study of trade questions on the spot.
The "first involved the despatch from England by the Board of Trade's
Advisory Committee on Commercial Intelligence, of Mr. H. W. Maclean,
who had been not long before Manager of the Imperial Bank of Persia at
Tehran and Honorary Attache of His Britannic Majesty's Legation in
Persia, and who by his experience of Persia and intimate acquaintance with
its trade was admirably qualified for the part he had to perform. Mr.
Maclean left England.at the beginning of 1903 and called at Bombay on
Ins way to Persia. The Government of India, who had been asked, and who
at wi ingly agreed, to grant him all the facilities and aid in their power,
suggested that he should study with special care the trade in tea, coffee,
go, an Indian cotton manufactures, as well as the general effect of the
new Persian customs tariff, and should work out the rates ad valorem on
e products of various countries when, as in the case of cotton textiles,
ere was but one specific duty for grades and kinds differing much in
pnce In the course of the enquiries made under his original instructions
Mr. Maclean visited the principal trade centres of Turkish Arabia and
ema. mc u ing, it would seem. Bandar 'Abbas, Bushehr, Basrah, Baghdad,
a ® s f an, Tabriz, Mashhad, Tehran and Isfahan ; and, when