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 im port free labour immediately, and it might embar rass 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 Zan zibar, 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, re presenting 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 neces sary. 220. Chairman.^ Will you give the substance of the correspondence without putting the corre spondence itself in ?—The substance of the de partmental correspondence is, that the Foreign Office asked the Treasury to pay and the Trea sury 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 considera tion 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 con trolling authority should be divided between the Foreign Office and the India Office, and just that the cost of maintaining this twofold esta blishment 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 pro posal has been negatived by the Lords Commis sioners 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 con sidering 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 sub jects 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 there after be made from the Indian revenues on account of any proceedings connected with the suppression of the slave trade, or any other mea sures 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 Finan cial Department of Her Majesty’s Government refuse to entertain a proposal strongly recom mended by other departments for an equitable division of the expenses of the Zanzibar establish ment, I could not, if I thought it desirable, re commend 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 dead lock. 222. So that this fearful traffic has latterly been increasingly carried on, owing to the action of one department of Her Majesty’s Gover- ment?—Certainly ; this would be the tendency; but I am not informed as to the fact. 223. You think that a matter deeply to be de plored ?—I think it a matter greatly to be de plored. 224. The head of the department has autho rised you to state that that is the view which he entertains ?