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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4 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Hon. C. Vivian. lO July 1871. have calculated it at 20,000 L a year, but I make out, unless Dr. Kirk has included also the sale of slaves, that in 1867-8 he must have got about 56,000 1. by the tax upon slaves, that is to say, 270,000 dollars ; whether that included the sale of slaves as well as the tax, I do not know. 38. According to that Report the value of a slave in the interior appears to be only a few yards of cloth?—Yes; at Zanzibar he is worth from 17 to 25 dollars. 39. What is his value on the coast of Arabia ? —I believe about 60 dollars ; but it must vary. 40. At what season of the year is the trade most active in Zanzibar?—From January to March is the time when the northern Arabs generally come down ; then I think they go up again in March and April, and again in August and September. 41. Mr. K.mnaird.~\ Is the trade carried on generally, by the same set of people ?—Yes ; it is a regular trade ; where they come from and who they are you will hear better from Mr. Churchill, but they are evidently old hands at the trade. 42. Chairman^ You told us that the slaves were principally exported to Muscat in the first instance?—Yes, and to ports in the Persian Gulf, and they go from there in small craft to the highest market. 43. Do the slave dealers come principally from the northern parts of Arabia ?■—Yes. 44. What measures have Her Majesty’s Go vernment taken to deal with these evils, and to suppress the slave traffic?—They obtained first of all the limitation I have already described to you ; they found out when these Arabs principally came down from the north, and they obtained from the Sultan of Zanzibar his declaration that no export of slaves should take place between the prohibited periods. 45. Was not that at the cost of recognising a legal traffic in slaves during a certain time of the year?—No doubt we have always recognised the fact of slavery being a legal institution at Zanzi bar. Zanzibar consists partly of the mainland and partly of the Islands, and the sovereign has always claimed the right of transporting domestic slaves from his possession on the continent to his pos sessions on the islands. 46. Waiving for a moment the question of the propriety of that local slave trade, that is a very small proportion of the slave trade, which we are here inquiring into ?—Yes, it is under the cloak of that that these northern Arabs have managed to carry their slaves to the north ; they are pro tected as long as they are within those limits, whether they are there for legal or illegal pur poses. 47. Have our Government proposed to enter into a new treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar, and if so, to what effect, and with what result ?— They proposed on the 16th of June last year to enter into a treaty to the following effect : To limit the shipment of slaves from the mainland to one point only on the African coast ” (it now extends over 350 miles of coast), “ namely. Dar Selam, and to prohibit entirely their ex port from any other places.” To make Zan zibar the only port for the reception of slaves shipped from Dar Selam, but with liberty to transport them thence to Pemba and Mombaza only” ; (those two being the other islands which want slaves also, we did not wish to prohibit them from transporting them to those other islands ; we only wished that all slaves should be taken to Zanzibar, and from there shipped to the other islands, so as to have a double check upon them.) “ Imports of slaves to any other place, or which have not come through Zanzibar, should be declared illegal, and liable to seizure. That the number of slaves exported from Dar Selam to Zanzibar, and thence to Pemba and Mombaza, shall be strictly limited to the actual require ments of the inhabitants of those places, to be annually settled by mutual consent between the Sultan and the British agent ; such number to be gradually decreased, so as to cease altogether within a certain time. That every vessel engaged in the transport of slaves shall be liable to cap ture, unless she is provided with a proper pass from the Sultan, which shall be valid only for one voyage, and with distinctive marks on her hull and sails, a heavy penalty being attached to any piracy of these passes or marks. That the public slave markets at Zanzibar shall be closed. That the Sultan shall engage from the date of the treaty to punish severely any of his subjects who may be proved to be concerned, directly or indirectly, in the slave trade, and especially any attempt to molest or interfere with a liberated slave. That the Kutchees and other natives of Indian States under British protection, shall be forbidden, alter a date to be fixed by the Government of India, to possess slaves ; and that in the meantime they shall be prevented from acquiring any ffieslf slaves. Lastly, the treaty should contain a stipulation, providing for the eventual entire prohibition of the export of slaves from the mainland. 48. That is not yet a treaty ?—No ; Mr. Churchill was engaged in pressing it upon the late Sultan when he died. 49. Has it been pressed upon the present Sul tan ?—We have sent out instructions to press it upon the present one, but pending this Committee nothing more has been done. 50. Mr. Kinnaird.'\ The Foreign Office is waiting the result of this Committee to take fur ther action?—That I do not know : I say we have not done anything more pending the in quiry of this Committee. There is a new Sultan now, and our proposals have been pressed upon him. 51. Mr. Crum-EicmgMr. Churchill has not been stopped in negotiating this treaty in a friendly way with the Sultan?—It is Dr. Kirk now who is acting in place of Mr. Churchill ; on the contrary. Dr. Kirk has received instructions to press the same terms upon the Sultan, but the time and the mode of his doing it are left to his discretion. 52. Chairman.^ Have Her Majesty’s Govern ment invited the co-operation of foreign powers in checking the slave trade ?—They have ; they have invited the co-operation of France, of Persia, and of Turkey. 53. Not Portugal?—No; I think it appears by a report amongst the last slave trade papers, that there is no slave trade at all on the Portuguese shore, or hardly any ; it stops at Cape Delgado, I think. Slavery is abolished now in Portugal en tirely. 54. Would you say there was any slave trade carried on from Zanzibar, under any flag except the Arab flag?—Yes; we had a representation that there was a slave trade carried on under the French flag; we have not got a right to search French vessels ; if we have strong suspicions that a vessel sailing under the French flag is engaged in the slave trade, we can examine her papers, and

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