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

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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

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188 APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE Appendix, No. 8. force of arms, when, at the request of the Government of Bombay, he abandoned this intention, and agreed to submit his claim to the arbitration of the Governer General oí India. 2. Syud Thoweynee, it would appear from Brigadier Coghlan’s first report, rests his claim upon the fact that he is sovereign of Muscat, and that in that character he is de jare sovereign of Zanzibar also, as a dependency of Muscat. He does not base his title as ruler of Muscat on any right or custom of primogeniture, but on the fact of his recog nition by the tribes of Oman. He denies that his father left any will, or made any clear indication of his wishes in connection with the succession to his dominions. The only will which the late Imam left related to his private personal property ; but it contained one provision which Syud Thoweynee contends is opposed to the assumption that lie intended to erect Zanzibar into a separate sovereignty. That provision was, that the Imam’s two ships, the “ Caroline” and the Feidh Alim,” were to be given after his death to the treasury of the Mussulmans as a legacy from him. It is contended by Syud Thoweynee that the treasury of the Mussulmans meant the treasury of Muscat, and that therefore the late Imam virtually recognised only one public exchequer. 3. It will be useful to consider and dispose at once of the argument involved in this assertion. The Honourable the Governor in Council has no doubt that, by the treasury of the Mussulmans, the treasury of Muscat was intended ; but the deduction drawn from these premises he considers to be too large. He regards the facts in this light ; the sovereignty of Muscat is in some degree a hierarchy ; a sacred character attaches to the Imam ; a bequest to the treasury of Muscat is therefore a pious offering. The late Syud Saeed had long been a resident at Zanzibar ; it seems therefore to the Honourable the Governor in Council a natural act, and, for one in the Imam’s position, a natural mode of expressing his wishes for him to bequeath a portion of his private property to the land of his birth and the local centre of his religion. He had chosen Zanzibar as his residence, but in the last act of his life he makes a bequest to Muscat, with mingled solemnity and affection, as the treasury of the Mussulmans. The Honourable the Governor in Council does not consider that the fact advanced by Syud Thoweynee, if strained to the utmost, could be regarded as affording a clear indication of the late Imam’s wishes, or as out weighing the inferences to be drawn from Syud Saeed’s letter to Lord Aberdeen. But as the general tenor of Syud Thoweynee’s argument is, that the late Imam possessed no right of regulating the succession, the provision regarding the bequest to the treasury of the Mussulmans is not of material importance in connectioon with his claim, although it demanded notice from the Honourable the Governor in Council in the present place. 4. But the main argument of Syud Thoweynee, that he was recognised by the tribes of Oman as sovereign of Muscat, and that in that character he is de jure sovereign of Zanzibar also, must, in the opinion of the Honourable the Governor in Council, suffice to place the defacto ruler of Zanzibar in the position of one who must prove his title. Syud Majeed does not dispute his brother’s right to the sovereignty of Muscat ; the great question, then, to be decided is, as under the late rulers the sovereignty of their conquests, Zanzibar, &c., was united to that of Muscat, can Syud Majeed establish a valid title to the possession of Zanzibar as a distinct sovereignty ? This question leads the Hononrable the Governor in Council to the consideration of Brigadier Coghlan’s report of the 4th December. 5. Brigadier Coghlan in this elaborate report, after stating the precautionary measure which he had adopted of obtaining from Syud Majeed a formal agreement to abide by the arbitration of the Right Honourable the Governor General of India, proceeds to discuss the grounds on which th^e present ruler of Zanzibar rests his claims to the sovereignty of that portion of his late father’s dominions. 6. The grounds are thus stated :— I. The will or wishes of his late Highness Syud Saeed. II. The recognition of Syud Majeed by foreign Powers. III. His virtual recognition by his rival brother Syud Thoweynee of Muscat. IV. His election as their sovereign by the chiefs of Zanzibar and its African Dependencies. 7. Of the grounds thus stated, the 2nd and 3rd may be at once disposed of. With * respect to the recognition by foreign powers, it will be observed that Her Majesty and the British Government did not allude to Syud Majeed’s sovereignty in the replies returned to the letters announcing his father’s death, and that there is no reason for supposing that the French and American Governments were ever aware that a claimant to the throne of Zanzibar existed in the person of the elder brother of Syud Majeed- They replied to the defacto sovereign; but no argument can be raised upon this circumstance in favour of the assertion that Syud Majeed was the de jure sovereign. 8. So with respect to the virtual recognition by Syud Thoweynee. It is clear that an agreement was negotiated, in virtue of which Syud Majeed was to be left in possession of his father’s African dominions on payment to his brother, the ruler of Muscat, of an annual sum of 40,000 crowns ; but this payment is contended by the one party to have been a tribute, and by the other party to have been a subsidy or gift, implying no inferiority on the part of the donor towards the recipient. There appears great resson to believe that the agent of Syud Thoweynee deceived both parties ; and there certainly was no

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