THE PERSIAN FAMINE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 255, 28 October 1871, Page 4

THE PERSIAN FAMINE.

(From a Jdnrfon Paper.) ; . • ' , " The reports we are receiving; here ; giye newi and, if possible, even more i<>rcibk details of the^Peraianfamine. The dearth is much more widespread than at firet reported. In place of being confined to the ProVinoe of Mottmn, it extends over

the entire land. Already the loss of life has been fearful. Persia is said, on reliable authority, to have lost 50 per cent, of her population. Thousands of people, half famished, have dragged themselves across the froDtier into Turkish Arabia and Cabool ; while tlioae who have not had the energy to emigrate, or have been pravented from doing so by the strong arm of the Government, are daily dying by thousands of starvation. A Persian subject cannot leave bis native country, even to go upon a pilgrimage to Meshed Hosein or to Mecca, without special permission from the authorities, and this permission is, even now, in spite of the present appalling condition of the country, still ibsisted upon. The pc6ple>in desperation, however, use every means to elude the vigilance of the Government, and escape into happier lands. It appears that there was a terrible drought last year, which was followed, as a natural consequence, by a paitial failure of the crops. There was great suffering and privation, but comparatively little mortality. It is a curious fact that this famine is, to a certain extent, one result, though of course, an indirect one, of the American civil war. There is a belt of country in Persia which is eminently well calculated for the production of cotton, and the high price of that article seven or eight years -ago, induced many of the smaller cultivators to abandon other crops and to embark in its production.. This opening for commerce rapidly developed iuto a large trade, and a couple of lines of steamers have been started from Bombay to Bushire, a port on the Persian Gulf!, which is the only ous of importance, on Persia's limited sea coast. The money gained by the sale of cotton was obtained to buy provisious from Ears or Faristan, and the southern provinces, which are better adapted to the growth of wheat and rice. The high price of opium, owing to the tax imposed upon its export by the British Indian Government, has also stimulated the production of poppies in place of grain. Last year there were two thousand chests of this drug exported from Bushire. The silk trade has also largely increased. These causes have all operated to diminish the area of land employed in the raising <)f provisions, and have doubtless tended to aggravate the consequences of the present bad season. The partial famine last year exhausted such small accumulated slocks of provisions as were in the couutry. The people, however managed to linger through the winter, sustained by the hope that the spring crop (there are two yearly crops in Persia)would bring back plenty. Early in the year in spite of the general impoverishment of the people, the Government, with shocking inhumanity, raised the taxes. This completed the misery of its unhappy subjects. What little money they had left was torn from them, and they were left beggared to face a year whose horrors had but begun. The first effect of the increased taxation was to drive the people from their homes in the country to the big cities, as, owing to a curious law, the imports upon tillers of the soil are very much heavier than those exacted from the dwellers in towns. In cities, indeed, the mass of the population practically escape taxation, and the revenue is raised, with the exception of a polltax, from the merchants. „ Before the end of : winter the famine had spread from Farsistan to the other provinces, which depended upon it for supplies. The cities of Ispahan, Yezd, Kermau, and Shiraz were crowded with starving multitudes. Teheran, the capital, suffered least, but even there the privations were terrible. Wheat in Kerman rose to nine times its usual price. The new crop has failed also. The people have endeavored to keep themselves alive by eating grass and roots, but even this scanty nourishment has now been exhausted. In Khorassan, which borders on Cabool, and the wild steppes of Central Asia, people sold their children into slavery among the Turcomans in order to save them from starvation, and, at the same time, to acquire a few tomauns to spend in the bazaar for sustenance. In Ispahan men have been caught in the act of exhuming the corpses of the dead for the purpose of eating them. Among the results of the famine may be mentioned that all domestic animals, even horses, of which Persia raised a great many, not only for her own use, but also for exportation to India, have been killed and eaten. The ■: people are almost beyond the reach of help. Even if food were brought from India, there are no cattle left to transport it into the interior; and even if there were, it is a month's journey from Bushire to Ispahan, and six months to Khorassan. This dearth will probably be the most horrible on record. Two years ago a couple of millions of people died in India of starvation. 'Unlesß, however, the Persian Government" consents to the deportation of its subjects, there will, be among its 8,000,000 of people a mortality even more appalling than this.