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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54 minutes of evidence taken before select committee 20 July 1871. tic slaves on board, would in your opinion account L. Or. Heath, for a great number of these at present unaccounted for?—No, I think not; because till November 1869, dhows having domestic slaves on boards had always been captured. 707. In 1868, 66 dhows were captured, while in 1869 only 32 were captured ; but if this order did not come till November 1869, it would not have any bearing upon that decrease ?—No ; the larger number of captures in the earlier year was, because in the previous year the slave dealers had been left alone, owing to the Abyssinian War. 708. There is a large diiference between those captured and those who appear from the Custom House returns to have been exported, and which are unaccounted for in any way ?—Yes. 709. Sir R. Anstrutherr\ What means have you of distinguishing domestic slaves on board a dhow from any other slaves?—The Admiralty in that circular have laid down as a definition of what are to be considered domestic slaves, “ where the slaves found on board are very few in number, are unconfined, and appear to be on board for the purpose of loading or working the ship, or at tending upon the master or the passengers, and there is no other evidence that the vessel is en gaged in or equipped for the slave trade.” 710. I may take it as your view that the action of this circular to which you have referred has been more or less to impede the squadron in the capture of slaves?—If you put it in the future tense it will have that efiect very largely, I think. I should like to quote, as illustrating my views on that point, a portion of my annual Report of 22nd January 1870 (it is in the Cor respondence for the year 1870): “On the 6th November, their Lordships issued ‘ Instructions for tiie Guidance of Naval Officers employed in the Suppression of the Slave Trade-’ Those in structions forbid the detaining of vessels having slaves on board, if there are attendant circumstan ces showing that the slaves are not being trans ported for the purpose of being sold as slaves; and there is added, as an example of the nature of those cireumstances, Where the slaves found on board are very few in number, are unconfined, and appear to be on board for the purpose of loading or working the ship, or attending upon the master or the passengers, and there is no other evidence that the vessel is engaged in, or equipped for, the slave trade.’ I believe that, just as it is said a drunkard can only be cured by total absti nence, so the slave trade by sea can only be put down, if at all, by a rigid forbidding of the carry ing to sea of any slaves of any description. As I have before remarked, even what is called a domestic slave is not only a saleable article, but an article \\ hich is very often sold ; and the re turn of those embarked to the port thev originally left depends solely upon whether or no a good oiler has been made for them at the ports they have visited in the interval.” 711. Chairman.'] Seeing that the fleet* you have had under your command is not sufficient to prevent the escape of a very large proportion of the slaves exported, has your attention been directed to any measures which might be adopted to prevent the continuance of the slave trade ?— In answer to your question, I will quote part of my letter dated 1st March 1869, addressed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, in the Blue Book, containing the correspondence of 1869 : I ob serve that it is not unusual to close these reports with an expression of hope that the heavy blows which have been dealt at the trade during th& past year, will go far to check it for the future- I can express no such hope. The trade is fat too profitable, and will not be affected by a risk so small as that incurred by the proceedings of Her Majesty’s ships. It supplies a want which has not been left unsatisfied for many centuries past ; a want which, sanctioned by the relio-ioU of the country, has grown almost into an instinct. To pant down this trade, requires far more effort, and far more energy than England has yet shown in the matter. Twenty-five years have elapsed since the first treaty with Muscat, and all that time we have been contented with the capture of a very small per-centage of the total exports ; a per-centage large enough to irritate the legal traders, who are harrassed and annoyed bv the visits of our cruisers, but too small to affect materially the illegitimate trade, ^Ye must do far more than this to insure success. We must double or treble our squadron. lYe must esta blish vice consulates at the ports of export, but above all, we must force the Government of Zanzibar into active acquiescence in our views, and, if necessary, purchase or take possession of that island.” In subsequent letters urging the same view, I have altered this last sentence, and said, “ purchase the sovereignty of the island.” ^ 712. Is that the only thing that occurs to you as a means of putting' a stop to the trade ?—I think that if a treaty is made in the sense of Lord Clarendon’s proposals to Mr. Churchill (page 30, Correspondence of 1870), if that part of the existing treaty which is supposed to alloW domestic slavery afloat is abrogated, and if the squadron is increased so as to make it difficult to evade that treaty when made, we shall have a chance of success; but I still hold that the only radical cure will be the making Zanzibar a centre from which British civilisation can radiate into that part of Africa 713. You mean becoming actually possessed of it as being a colony of Great Britain?—Yes. 714. Or a protected state ?—That is a matter for the Foreign Office to determine. 715. Zanzibar is not a very healthy place, is it? Zanzibar is undoubtedly an unhealthy place, but I do not know that it is more so than many other tropical colonies or English settlements. 716. We heard of its being im%)ossible to sleep out of the town?—Bishop Tozer has a sort of missionary school superintended by two or three English ladies, and he has two or three clergy men with him. I know he has a farm-house three miles outside Zanzibar, and my belief is that that is considered a sort of sanatorium. Captain Fraser, an Englishman, who has a large sugat manufactory, goes out to his estate as a sort of change, when he wants fresh air, and I was sur prised to hear the accounts given by General Rigby of the extreme deadliness of the climate. /17. Are you able to give us any information as to the ^ nealthmess of those parts of the coast where it is proposed that vice consuls should be stationed . — The only fact I know as to that is, that a Ml. Heale, an Englishman, engaged in the purchase of hides at Brava, lived there for some nmnths, and I never heard that he was seriously affected by the climate. 718. Have you read the Report of the Com mittee which sat at the Foreign Office?—Yes, I read it, and I was called upon officially to report upon it. 719. Is

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