مجموعة ٢٩ /٩٠ "بوشهر: النيابة القنصلية؛ السكن وتوفير الأثاث" [و‎‎١‎٢] (٣٤/٢٣)

a Persian family since he left. I have brought the contract
to an end*
Assuming that I can find a suitable house, there remains
the problem off mishing it. The reasonable expectation, to
my mind, is that the Vice-Consul should find on arrival an
it
immediately habitable somewhere, presupposing a permanent
nucleus of indispensable furniture. It does not seem
unreasonable that the Vice-Consul in future should be able to
count on such a nucleus so that he might be indepent of
hospitality from the day of his arrival, or that this nucleus
should be Government property. There is not even an
accumulated legacy of past years; the position of the Vice-
Consul in this respect is unique among the European residents.
If the Vice-Consul is left to depend for furniture on what he
himself possesses or his predecessor leaves (in my case, nothing
on either count), he is liable in each case to have to import a
houseful from India, a slow and expensive process; when he
leaves, if he cannot hand on to his successor, he is unable to
dispose of it locally and has no altern tive but, figuratively,
to shoulder his losses and his furniture as cheerfully as he may.
The peculiarities of the position which seem to me to
justify the provision of Government furniture are; the lack of
temporary accommodation generally; the impossibility of
acquiring or disposing of ’uropean furniture locally; and the
difficulty and expense of transport to and from Bushire. If
the Vice-Consul has the misfortune to be transferred here from
another part of Iran after his original nine months’ franchise
has lapsed, he is worse off by the large sum payable as Customs
duty on any furniture he may have to import.
Standing instructions as on page 146 (Rule 38) of the
Foreign Office list do seem to cover cases of, I imagine,this
kind. I can only suggest that that authority might be quoted