Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/85

Rh extracted from them. Fish are extensively used for manure, espe- cially in Muscat, where they are also fed to cattle without unpleasant results. Sharks are caught in enormous numbers with hook and harpoon; the flesh is considered by some to have aphrodisiacal properties ; the dried fins and tails are exported to China ; the oil is used for smearing boats. The turtle is also found, the carapace being exported as tortoiseshell, the animal being gently roasted or boiled alive over a slow fire to facilitate the separation of the shell from the flesh. The whale is often seen in the Gulf of Oman; porpoises and swordfishes are common.

Pearling Industry. The pearling grounds of Bahrein are in over six fathoms of water, mostly beyond the three-mile limit. The geological formation of the bottom of the Persian Gulf and the temperature and shallowness of its waters appear to be favourable in a high degree to the growth of the pearl oyster. The pearl banks which are known ana actually worked occupy a very considerable proportion of the whole area of the Gulf, chiefly upon the Arabian side. The pearl banks on the Persian side are found chiefly on the coast between Lingeh and Tahiri, and again in the neighbourhood of Kharag Island. The largest and most productive of all the banks are situated on the Arabian side of the Gulf and are fished annually; the banks of the Persian coast are poor as well as small and are fished at infrequent intervals. The total value of pearls exported was estimated in 1905 at about 1,500,000, the value at current prices of the 1919 outturn was probably about 2,500,000. Mother- of-pearl was exported before the World War to the value of 20,000 ; after the war high freights and absence of demand from Hamburg, the principal market, killed the trade for the time being. Some 4,500 boats employing some 75,000 men are employed in the pearling industry during the season, which lasts for almost three months, and can do little else but fish for the rest of the year.

Commerce. A summary of import and export values of trade in the Persian Gulf, excluding Mohammerah and Basra, is appended. It is, however, not possible to make reliable deductions from these figures taken by themselves. The normal value, for example, of the post-war exports of Bahrein should be more nearly 3,000,000 than 1,000,000, owing to the enhanced value in terms of money of pearls, and the export trade of Bandar "Abbas should likewise be more in a normal post-war than in a pre-war year. Of the total imports from 19123, one-half come direct from India and a quarter from the United Kingdom direct, the balance from foreign countries, European and Asiatic, in about equal proportions. For the latest post-war statistics up to 1921 the proportions were respectively two- thirds, one-sixth and one-sixth, owing primarily to the almost com- plete cessation of direct shipments from Europe to the Persian Gulf.

Mail Communications. The Persian Gulf was at the end of the i8th century the most rapid route between Europe and India, and it was not until 1833 that the Red Sea route was adopted by the East India Co.; from this date until 1862 the Gulf fell into an extraordi- nary state of inaccessibility letters for India being sent from Bag- dad and Basra via Damascus, and correspondence from Bushire for Bagdad via Teheran. In 1862 the British India Steam Navigation Co. undertook their first mail contract for the Persian Gulf, and simultaneously the Euphrates-Tigris Steam Navigation Co. agreed to run a subsidized line of mail steamers from Basra to Bagdad.

The British India Co. maintain weekly and fortnightly services between Basra and the Persian Gulf. The fast weekly steamer stops only at Karachi, Bushire and Mohammerah on its way to Basra. The slow mail steamers stop at every port in the Gulf, either on the upward or the downward voyage.

Posts. The reopening in 1862 of direct communications between India and the Persian Gulf gave rise to a demand for properly organ- ized post-offices, and the Indian Postal Department accordingly opened branches in 1864 at Muscat and Bushire. Every port of importance on both sides of the Persian Gulf has an Indian post- office transacting all classes of business.

The existence of these offices on Persian soil has occasionally been the subject of complaint by the Persian Government. The justifica- tion for their continued existence has been found in the climatic conditions of the Gulf, which make it difficult for the Persian Government to staff their own offices adequately, and in the fact that the rupee is the only currency common to all ports of the Gulf and to India, while the trade of these ports is mainly with India.

Telegraphs. The inception of the Persian Gulf telegraphs, which formed the first links in an intercontinental chain, was dictated not by local interests, but by broad considerations of national advantage. The Crimean War of 1856 brought home to the Porte the slowness of communication between the Persian Gulf and the outlying provinces of the Turkish Empire, while the Mutiny of 1857 taught the British Government a similar lesson in regard to India. In 1857, after some unfruitful preliminary attempts, the Turkish Government agreed to the construction of aline from Scutari to Bagdad on their behalf; this was finished in 1 86 1 and was extended to Fao by 1864, after further lengthy negotiations, when it was linked up with the cable from Karachi which had been laid meanwhile. The route of the cables has been several times altered. They now run from Karachi to Jask, whence a cable runs to Muscat ; from Jask one cable runs to Hanjam, and thence to Bushire ; another cable runs direct to Bushire. Hanjam is connected by cable with Bandar 'Abbas. A double cable connects Bushire with Fao. Bushire, Hanjam, Bahrein, Abadan and Basra

Summary showing Import and Export Values of Trade in the Persian Gulf (excluding Iraq and Arabistan) in two pre-war years and in

the latest post-war year available.

Imports

Exports

Total

Arab Side Kuwait .... Bahrein Is Muscat ....

1912-3 438,298 2.239-527 463-551

I9I3-4 370,817 1,877,630

407,768

Post-WarYear 1,061,300 1,414,423 289,964*

1912-3 132,260 2,295,136 301,477

I9I3-4 114,421 1 ,740,008 27L536

Post-War Year 276,092

946,344 t 242,188*

Post-War Year 1,337,392 2,360,767 532,152

Total ....

3,141,376

2,656,215

2,765,687

2,728,873

2,125,965

1,464,624

4,230,311

Persian Side Bushire Bandar 'Abbas. Lingeh

951-720 3H.877 164,325

825,767 459,000 180,120

2,723,357 997,6iot 159,283

637,091 283,942 193,895

601,765 266,700 126,381

917.655 279,945 99,858

3,641,012 1,277,555 259,141

Total ....

1,430,922

1,464,887

3,880,250

1,114,928

994,846

1,297,458

5,177,708

Grand Total

4,572,298

4,121,102

6,645,937

3,843,801

3,120,811

2,546,264

9,408,019

f Reckoning 55 Krans
 * 1918-9 in the case of

Muscat, 1919-20 in other cases, to the.

Banks. The Imperial Bank of Persia, in addition to branches all over Persia, has branches at Bushire, Bandar 'Abbas and Moham- merah. The Eastern Bank has a branch at Bahrein.

Currency. Persian currency alone is legal in Persia, but the rupee is freely current in Persian ports. On the Arab coast the rupee is legal tender, and is almost exclusively used for commercial transactions, but the Maria Teresa dollar circulates freely, and is preferred by the inhabitants of the interior of Arabia. Persian currency is also in use, principally in Bahrein.

Lights and Buoys. In view of the difficulties attending navigation in the Gulf, and the impossibility of arranging with the Govern- ments of the littoral for the provision of lights and buoys except on terms which would have greatly hampered shipping, the British Government, in view of the great preponderance of British shipping in the Gulf, has established since 1912 a very complete system of lights and buoys, the cost of which is shared in equal moieties by the Government of India and H.M. Government in accordance with the recommendations of the Welby Commission. Lighthouses exist on one of the Quwain group of islands off Ras Musandam and on Tunb I. ; light-buoys have been placed at Bushire in the outer and inner anchorages, at Bahrein and on the Shatt al 'Arab bar. Shore lights and unlighted buoys have also been provided where necessary. There is a lightship in the Shatt al 'Arab bar, which is very com- pletely buoyed and lighted throughout its length from the lightship to Fao, where there is a fixed light.

are provided with wireless stations. Kuwait is connected by land line with Basra; Jask is connected by a land line to Karachi. Mo- hammerah is connected by land line and cable with Basra and Abadan and via Ahwaz with Bushire and with the inland Persian system. Bushire has its own telephone system; Mohammerah is connected by telephone with Basra. The whole system is under the control of the Indo-European Telegraph Department, whose director- in-chief is responsible to the Secretary of State for India. The Department, which also controls the principal international lines in Persia, is amply self-supporting.

Population cmd Religions. In all the countries of the Persian Gulf, Islam in one or another of its forms prevails, almost to the exclusion of other religions. The Mahommedans of the Persian Gulf region belong to the following denominations: Sunni, Shiah, Ibadhi, Wahabi and Khojah. The Wahabis may be regarded as a branch of the Sunnis and the Khojahs as a branch of the Shiahs. Shiahs predominate on the Persian coast except in the districts ofRudHilleh, Shibkuh, Lingeh, Bastak,Biyaban, Jask, and on the islands of the Persian Gulf. The Persian province of S. Arabistan, which is under the hereditary government of the Sheikh of Moham- merah, is exclusively Shiah. The Sunnis are estimated at 100,000 out of a total population in the maritime districts of 300,000.