12
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE
Hon.
C. Vivian.
13 July .
1871.
Americans have taken any active part in the
suppression of the slave trade in East Africa.
183-4. Do you know whether the consul is an
American born subject ?—I cannot tell you that ;
Mr. Churchill will probably be able to tell you.
Then, 1 want to refer to a very Important point,
about which, I think, you can get better evidence
from Mr. Churchill. I said on Monday that I
thought one of the chief levers to be made use
of was the payment of a money compensation to
the Sultan to induce him to give up his right to
transport slaves by sea. Dr. Kirk, in a letter,
dated December 24, 1870, (in the papers laid before
Parliament in the early part of this year)
advises us that there is another way of bringing
pressure to bear upon the Sultan. He
says “ I think that we stand in a better position
to bring his Highness to reason on the more
weighty matter that will be pressed upon him,
the suppression of the slave trade, on which I
have as yet no reason to think that his Highness
has altered his views. In re-opening the friendly
relations between the Arab Government and
British agency, I have allowed all advances to
come from his side, and avoided compromising the
advantage we hold in pressing important concessions
upon a prince who has once, in insulting
terms, declined to discuss questions submitted to,
and entered into, by his predecessor ; and who
will be entirely in our hands the moment we
choose to press the matter. My former intimate
acquaintance with Seyed Burgash gives me little
hope that he will give in without pressure, but
this is easily applied through the commercial
treaty, one half of the provisions of which have
never been enforced. Should a favourable occasion
offer I shall sound his Highness on the
slave question ; and the way has been prepared
for further action by publishing in Arabic and
Gujeratee an abstract of our treaty rights, which
I had before submitted to Seyed Majid, at the
time he hesitated to reduce the coast tax, then
unequally levied on our subjects and the French.
This abstract has been accepted by his Highness
Seyed Burgash, as a fair embodiment of our
treaty rights ; but so ignorant is he of the
financial arrangements of his government, that
he does not see that there are clauses which,
when enforced, will deprive him of two-thirds
of his revenue.” That means to say, if we
insist upon the stipulations, which we have a
right to insist upon, in this commercial treaty of
1639, we can deprive him of a great part of his
revenue. That appears to me an important point
to consider.
185. He considers himself bound by that
Treaty of 1839 ?- Yes ; abstracts of it have been
printed in Arabic and Gujeratee, which he has
accepted as correct versions. Then I wish to
read to the Committee two or three extracts from
important despatches received since I last gave
my evidence, which may be of use to the Committee.
The first is dated from Zanzibar, the
20th of March this year. Dr. Kirk says, “ The
whole subject (this is about the dis])Osition of
liberated slaves), of the disposal of slaves on
shore here, is one requiring much consideration
and careful organisation before being practised
to any extent. In the absence of some official
thoroughly conversant with both the Zanzibar
people and the tribes of the mainland, I consider
that it would be most dangerous to allow so
helpless beings, as a cargo of freed slaves, to go
into the hands of any proprietor here. Properly
directed, I believe, that a greater influence can
be obtained for the abolition of slavery through
those freed slaves than in any other way ; and
nothing can be more disgraceful than the present
mode of dealing with them at Aden and Bombay.
I am certain however that it will be found expedient,
if not necessary, so long as Zanzibar
remains a free Arab government, for us to have
a free settlement somewhere on the coast, possibly
not an English possession, but certainly under
our administration. On such a station only could
a mass of freed slaves be properly and advantageously
dealt with for the first five years of
their freedom, and a settlement of this nature on
the coast, would be a break in the land route
that will at once be opened when the sea transport
is prohibited and blockaded.” Next, as to the
position of the slave trade. Dr. Kirk writes on
the 4th of April this year, “ It is notorious how
active are the preparations for the slave trade this
season, and how utterly powerless the Sultan is
to prevent the system of kidnapping, and secret
slave dealing, that is carried on by and for the
northern Arabs. Ko one more readily acknowledges
this than his Highness, who has of late
seized in town 50 kidnapped slaves from the
houses occupied by these Muscat people, but he
knows that his officers are all open to bribes, and
that although he can in a measure throw difficulties
in the way of their leaving the harbour,
he has no power to stop the transport of slaves
in 'small lots, to other places on the coast at
which the slave dhows call. Unfortunately no
suspicion attaches to native vessels leaving the
harbour in ballast, as so many cargoes of wooden
rafters and corn are collected for Arabia from
creeks and harbours along the coast, but the absence
of the usual bounties so foolishly given to
the Arabs of Oman, by the late Seyed Majid,
will prove some discouragement to their return
next year.” Then Dr. Kirk writes on the 14th
of April, "" Seyed Burgash said, that from the
English he had no fear, so long as he adhered to
the word of the old treaties ; these he said had
been granted and could not be revoked, but
that he well knew the English could not, and
would not, force him beyond the text of what
they had already got. He added that he fully
expected they would write, talk, and threaten,
possibly even send ships ; but he was perfectly
at his ease, knowing that they would not use
force, unless he gave them the excuse by departing
from what had been signed. Anticipating,
through the English, trouble from
Muscat, he said he had made a compact with
Toorkee, and that both of them understood each
other and the English also, that the one would
not be made the means of ruining the other.
Seemingly in connection with the last subject,
his Highness sent me the original of a letter he
had received from Seyed Toorkee, and I am
aware that he had sent to Muscat 20,000 dollars
a few days ago. I have also been informed that
the subject of the renewal of the Muscat subsidy
was discussed in Durbar, on receipt of letters
from the agent of Jairam in Bombay, informing
Ludda Damji that Toorkee has, or will receive
permission from Bombay to claim the subsidy
with two years arrears, and if not paid, enforce it
in his own way. But I think for the payment ol
the subsidy Seyed Burgash is prepared. In all
my former reports I have given Seyed Burgash
the credit that is his due, for having cleared out
a mass of iniquity and corruption in the course of
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