Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 832922498

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-79587

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

Place of publication:: [London]

Publisher:: [The House of Commons]

Year of publication:: 1871

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XXIV, 242 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

132 APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE Appendix, No. 8. (Secret Department.—No. 10 of 1860.) MUSCAT-ZANZIBAK COMMISSION. Brigadier Coqhlan’s Report. * Government records, Persian Gulf, p. 237. t Letter, No. 47 of 1859. From Brigadier W. M. Coghlan, Political Resident at Aden, to H. X. Anderson, Esq., Acting Chief Secretary to Government, Bombay ; dated Bombay, 4 July 1860. Sir, I HAVE the honour to submit the following report of my inquiries and proceedings at Muscat for the information of the Honourable the Governor in Council. 2. After touching at the Island of Hallania, where the “Punjaub” remained two days, she proceeded to Muscat, and arrived there on the morning ot the 12th ultimo. Hadji Ahmed, the Vizier of his Highness, Syud Thoweynee, came on board shortly after, and to him I entrusted the two letters addressed to his Highness by the Honourable the Governor of Bombay. Arrangements were made at the same time for our complimentary visit, which took place the same afternoon. 3. Syud Thoweynee was extremely gratified with the tenor of Sir George Clerk’s letter setting forth the object of the Commission. He was also much pleased with the appointment of Mr. Rassam to the Acting British Agency at Muscat, and expressed his gratitude towards the Government for the arrangement which had thus been made for settling the long-pending differences between himself and his brother Syud Majeed at Zanzibar. His Highness’s reply to the Honourable the Governor, which was forwarded with my letter. No. 7, of the 25th June, dwells on these points so fully that further notice of them is superfluous. 4. In the course of seven subsequent interviews, extending over our stay of nine days at Muscat, every effort was made to elicit information which might tend to throw light on the points in dispute, and Syud Thoweynee was repeatedly urged to state the grounds on which he rested his claim to the suzerainty of Zanzibar, and to the payment of tribute by his brother Majeed. I further deemed it fair to give his Highness an oppor tunity of exculpating himself from the various charges which had been brought against him in the official correspondence already submitted to Government on the Muscat- Zanzibar question. 5. Until corresponding inquiries have been made at Zanzibar, I am necessarily unable to form a decisive judgment on the opposing claims of the two parties; I shall, therefore, confine myself, at present, to a statement of Syud Thoweynee’s case, as represented by himself, merely adding thereto occasional remarks in elucidation of the same, and con firmatory, or otherwise, of the arguments adduced by him. The documentary evidence obtained has been thrown together in an Appendix, and will be referred to as occasion may require. The translations were made by the Rev. Mr. Badger from correct copies duly collated with the original papers. 6. I was glad to find the question regarding succession simplified by the repeated admission of Syud Thoweynee, that whatever claims are, theoretically, attached to primogeniture, practically, and more especially in the case of his ancestry of the reigning family, such claims have generally been disregarded. This coincides with the opinion of Colonel Hamilton,* that “ primogeniture, amongst Arabs, is not acknowledged as giving “ any bona fide right to succession,” and corroborates a similar statement made by Colonel Rio-by,t “ that the rights of primogeniture have never been recognised among the Imams “ of Oman.” 7. Further, I find on inquiry that Syud Thoweynee does not found his claim to supremacy on the bare fact that he was nominated by his late father^ to succeed to the government of his Arabian possessions ; but insists rather on his position as the actual ruler of Omán, which, in his opinion, constitutes him the rightful sovereign over all the dependencies of the parent State. He meets the argument adduced to prove that the late Imâm possessed the right of disposing of his dominions at will, by inquiring in what other oro-anised State, whatever the form of Government may be, the sovereign is endowed with any- such prerogative. And he finally contends that no such disposal of his territories was ever made by his late father, either by will or otherwise. ^ The only will extant is in his own possession, and he maintains that the bequests comprised therein have reference solely to the personal property of the testator, except the clause which directs that “ his two « ships, the ‘ Caroline ’ and ‘ Feidh Alim,’ be given after his death to the treasury of the “ Mussulmans, as a legacy from him.” Syud Thoweynee considers this latter bequest as a virtual recognition of one public exchequer, and that the Treasury of Muscat ( Muscat being the parent State) is indicated thereby. With regard to the letter addressed by his father, Syud Saeed, to the Earl of Aberdeen, dated Zanzibar, 23rd July 1844, and a letter from Colonel Hamerton to his Lordship, dated the 31st of the same month, which appears to have accompanied it (copies of which from Colonel Rigby’s letter. No. 46, of 1859, are given in Appendix A ), Syud Thoweynee argues, in the first place, that the appointment of his elder brother, Khaled, to the Governorship of his father’s African possessions.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation