Die Nationalökonomie in Frankreich

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

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 890892032

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-34137

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Waha, Raymund de http://d-nb.info/gnd/117560855

Title:: Die Nationalökonomie in Frankreich

Place of publication:: Stuttgart

Publisher:: Verlag von Ferdinand Enke

Year of publication:: 1910

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XIX, 540 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Buch I Die liberale Schule

Collection:: Economics Books

44 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE P.®”’ happen to sight an English steamer at sea the C. P. Rigby, slavers frequently cut the throats of the whole „ 7~, number of the slaves on board and throw them ¡^8^; overboard. ^ ' 562. Then the sufferings of the slaves on board are rather increased by our cruisers being sta tioned on the coast?—Very much indeed ; there is no doubt of it. I remember the case of a dhow that was captured in the harbour of Zan zibar by the ship “ Lyra.” I had had informa tion that that dhow had got slaves on board, and just before she sailed I went with Captain Old field of the Lyra,” and boarded the dhow. There were 112 girls on board her, evidently selected to be sold at a high pi ice for the harems of Arabia and Persia. The dhow was taken alongside the Lyra,” and these slaves were taken out. A fatigue party from the Lyra ” was sent into the dhow to take out the provisions, but each man as he went into the hold of the dhow fainted away ; the doctor then gave orders that the vessel was to be towed out and scuttled, and he said from the frightful stench, and the state the dhow was in, if she had gone to sea, there could be no doubt that in a week the whole of those slaves would have died ; that I think is a very common case. They go to sea so ill ju’o- vided, that the sufferings of the slaves are very great, and particularly if they have put off their departure to the last, or if the northern winds, set in earlier than usual, and they cannot beat up against them ; then the sufferings are frightful. 563. Mr. Shaio L<‘fev)e.~\ What is the average length of the voyage to Muscat ?—Thirty to 35 days; it they have any slaves on board, they have to put in at two or three ports for water ; and that circumstance gives great facility to our cruisers to check the trade, because they have only to watch a few ports on the coast to the north, and they are sure to catch a great many of those dhows. 564. Chairman^ Do you think by active exertions on the part of our cruisers, the trade could be prevented, looking at the large profit there is on the slaves ?—I have not the slightest doubt that within five years it could be entirely stopped ; but to stop it, we want what we have never yet had, viz., system ; one year you get an active officer on the coast, who enters into the spirit of the thing, and checks the trade a good deal; then he goes away, and another man comes with quite different opinions; or you get a captain of a cruiser who takes the advice of the Consul and pulls with him, and he does a great deal of good; and then, perhaps just as he has become acquainted with the secrets of the trade, and begins to know where the slaves are shipped, and where the dhows put in for water, and can dis tinguish between a legitimate trader and a slave dhow, which it takes a long time to do, he is ordered away and never goes back again. 565. If one slave dhow in five arrived at its destination in safety, would it pay for the loss of four?—No; I do not think it would. I should say that the loss of one would take the profits upon four ; because, when you take the price of provisions and all together, there is not so much profit. 566. So that if the cruisers succeeded in cap- tunng one out of five, you think it would be sufficient to destroy the trade?—Yes; I do not think they have hitherto captured anything like that proportion. 567. What force has there been on that coast? —There has never been any regular squadron kept up. ^ When I was there, the squadron that the Admiralty sent out was a common cause of joking amongst the French, and the Americans, and the Germans. That such a squadron should be sent out to check the slave trade was an ab surdity. There was the “ Sidon,” an old tub, that any dhow on the coast could beat ; there was the “ Gorgon,” that took 40 days to do 800 miles, and vessels of that class, perfectly useless for any other service. 568. Y ou think that the cruisers alone could put a stop to the trade ; but does it occur to you that any means might be taken to make it the interest of the Zanzibar people to put a stop to the trade ?—I think the Zanzibar Arabs are now fully aware that it will be stopped, and their ideas are very different now as to their own interests to what they were a few years ago. The late Sultan of Zanzibar sent his brother-in-law and a cousin on a mission to the Queen two years ago, and at the Sultan’s particular request I was ap pointed to take charge of the mission. The per son who acted as secretary is now the minister to the present Sultan, Syed Burgash, and in talking with him daily on the subject, he said that the Arabs are now beginning to find out that the English are quite right, that there is far more money to be made by keeping the labourers in the country and cultivating the rich valleys by their labour, than by selling them out of the country. 569. Mr. Shaw Lefevre.~¡ Would they be em ployed as slaves in the country ?—Tljere would always be a certain form of slavery on the coast, but it is _ not attended with any cruelty. Arabs are passionate and hot tempered, but they are not cruel to their slaves ; they are nothing like the French or the Portuguese in their treatment of slaves. 570. Chairman.'] They would have the power of stopping it altogether without our cruisers if they were really in earnest, and if they were satisfied that it would be to their interest to keep the slaves in their own country as labourers ?-— The difficulty is that the Zanzibar Arabs are so much afraid of these piratical tribes from the north, that come down with the north winds in great numbers. ♦571. Who make expeditions into the interior, and capture the slaves?—No, those are men of a different class, those are half castes, who organise those expeditions, and plunder slaves from the interior. 572. They are the men who provide the slaves for the northern Arabs?—Yes. 573. Have ¡you any suggestion to make with regard to what might be done in the way of put ting a pressure upon the Sultan to induce him to put a stop to the trade ?—We have tried all sorts of means thiough treaties, through remon strances, and through advice, and they have all done very little good. From what ï know of Syed Bui gash, I do not think he would be sO ^ ^^^clined to meet our views as the late Sultan w^, but I have always been of opinion that our Government should put down the slave trade with a strong hand. 574. In what way ?—I wrote out a short ex tract from one of Lord Pahnerton’s letters to my predecessor, and I often used to read a tranlation of it in the “Durbar” to the Sultan, and I often gave copies of it in Arabic to the principal chief®

Access restriction

Copyright

Full text: 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

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation