16
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE
Sir
J. W. Kaye.
13 July
1871.
ment if we paid the lesser part of the expense,
and the Imperial Government the greater.
212. There are some Indian subjects residing
at Zanzibar?—Yes.
213. Do you believe if the slave trade was
suppressed, a very large legitimate trade would
spring up ?—It has been shown that there is a
great deal of trade now ; whether if slavery were
suppressed in Zanzibar we could introduce free
labour, is another question ; I should think we
could in process of time, but my recommendation
would be that we should attempt gradually to
suppress the slave trade, because you cannot import
free labour immediately, and it might embarrass
the industrial resources of the country very
greatly if you suppressed the slave trade suddenly
without jiroviding free labour.
214. Has the Indian Government ever proposed
or recommended the establishment of more rapid
communication by steam, between India and Zanzibar,
as a means of suppressing the slave trade ?
—I do not know that they have, but I know that
the Slave Trade Committee which sat at the
Foreign Office recommended that the subject
should be taken into consideration, as one of very
considerable importance.
215. You have stated that you were a member
of that Committee ?—Yes.
216. As representing the India Office, were
you willing that the expenses of the Zanzibar
establishment, on the scale recommended by that
Committee, should be borne in equal parts by
the Indian and the Imperial Exchequers ?—Yes,
certainly, and the views I took were fully adopted
by the Secretary of State for India in Council,
and we wrote a letter to the Foreign Office, representing
that those were our views, and hoping
that that recommendation would be carried out.
217. Has that scheme been adopted by the
Government?—The scheme was concurred in by
the Foreign Office ; both the Foreign Office and
the India Office were of opinion that it would
be a fair mode of settling the whole matter.
218-19. Can you tell the Committee the reason
why it has not been adopted?—The reason it has
not been adopted, has been because the Lords of
the Treasury refused to pay a farthing towards
it ; I can produce the correspondence if necessary.
220. Chairman.^ Will you give the substance
of the correspondence without putting the correspondence
itself in ?—The substance of the departmental
correspondence is, that the Foreign
Office asked the Treasury to pay and the Treasury
refused. The result on the India Office is
shown by this passage of a Despatch from the
Duke of Argyll to Lord Mayo, dated 21st April
1871. “ Your Excellency is aware the ‘anomalous
state of things ’ here adverted to was brought by
Her Majesty’s Government under the consideration
of a Special Committee on the African Slave
Trade, in which the Foregn Office, the Colonial
Office, the India Office, and the Admiralty were
represented, and of which Mr. Churchill, your
agent at Zanzibar (then on sick leave), was a
member. The Committee were of opinion, that
as the duties of the agency and consulate at
Zanzibar were of a twofold character, one part
concerning the Indian, and the other the Imperial
Government, it was expedient that the controlling
authority should be divided between the
Foreign Office and the India Office, and just
that the cost of maintaining this twofold establishment
should be equally divided between the
Imperial and the Indian Governments. This
recommendation was supported by the Foreign
Office and the India Office, but it is with much
regret that I have to inform you that the proposal
has been negatived by the Lords Commissioners
of the Treasury, who refuse to burden
the Imperial Exchequer with any part of the
expenditure necessary for the support of the
Zanzibar establishment. Against this decision, I
have protested. I concur in opinion with your
Excellency’s Government, that the revenues of
India should on no account be charged with any
part of the expenditure entailed by the efforts
made for the suppression of the East African
slave trade ; but I do not agree wifh you in considering
that the interests of India are in no
wise promoted by the residence at Zanzibar ol
an officer appointed and controlled by the Indian
Government. There is a large and increasing
trade between India and Zanzibar, and many subjects
of Her Majesty and of neighbouring Indian
states are located in that territory; apart ifomall
political considerations, it appears to me indeed
to be open to serious question whether an entire
severance of the existing connection between
your Government and the state of Zanzibar
would not be highly injurious to large numbers
of the people under your rule. If, therefore, it
should be finally determined by the Lords of the
Treasury that no contribution shall be made by
the Imperial Exchequer towards the maintenance
of the British establishment at Zanzibar, I should
consider it my duty, in communication with your
Excellency, to place the agency on an entirely
new footing, so that no payment should thereafter
be made from the Indian revenues on
account of any proceedings connected with the
suppression of the slave trade, or any other measures
not having for their object the benefit of
the people of India; but it will be obvious to
your Excellency that at a time when the Financial
Department of Her Majesty’s Government
refuse to entertain a proposal strongly recommended
by other departments for an equitable
division of the expenses of the Zanzibar establishment,
I could not, if I thought it desirable, recommend
that the Imperial Government should
relieve India altogether of the charge of the
Zanzibar agency and consulate ;” so that you see
from this that the Secretary of State for India is
very willing to share the expenses fairly and
equitably with the Imperial Exchequer, but that
the Imperial Exchequer declines to bear any
part of the burden.
221. Mr. Kinnaird.'] Has great inconvenience
arisen from the refusal on the part of the Treasury
to carry out that scheme so concurred in by the
Foreign Office and the India Office?—Certainly,
very great inconvenience must arise, because we
have communicated to the Foreign Office that we
consider that they will no longer be privileged to
send any instructions to the Zanzibar agent ; so
that it must bring the whole thing to°a deadlock.
222. So that this fearful traffic has latterly
been increasingly carried on, owing to the action
of one department of Her Majesty’s Goverment?—Certainly
; this would be the tendency;
but I am not informed as to the fact.
223. You think that a matter deeply to be deplored
?—I think it a matter greatly to be deplored.
224. The head of the department has authorised
you to state that that is the view which he
entertains ?
