ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA). 
IX 
Zanzibar, and this, therefore, i? the extent of the legalised trade, and the value 
to the Sultan of Zanzibar at the present rate of tax would not exceed 4,000 /. 
annually 
Your Committee, however, do not believe that the Sultan of Zanzibar 
would be ultimately a loser by the abolition of the trade ; on the contrary, it 
was given in evidence that already the revenues of the Sultan, derived from the 
rapidly increasing trade of Zanzibar, and from his private estates in India are 
ample to maintain the Government of his State, independently of the sum 
received from the slave trade ; while the witnesses generally concur in stating 
that were the slave trade abolished, and a more ready means of communication 
afforded between Bombay, Aden, and Zanzibar, the already flourishing trade of 
that State would be rapidly developed. Material assistance to this development 
might be afforded by a line of mail steamers to Zanzibar. Should the Sultan 
be willing to enter into a new treaty, the Committee recommend that it contain 
provisions for the entire abandonment of the slave trade, the closing of the 
Zanzibar and Kilwa slave markets, the punishment of any of the subjects of 
Zanzibar in any w ay engaged in the slave trade, permission to the British Govern 
ment to station Vice Consuls at Kilwa, Dar Selam, and Lamoo ; and on the part 
of the British Government an agreement to settle, under full and stringent 
measures for their protection, a certain number of negroes released from slavery 
by Her Majesty’s cruisers. 
The Committee concur in the opinion expressed by the witnesses as to 
the necessity of an increase in the consular establishment ; and inasmuch as the 
staff of that establishment would he largely employed in the suppression of the 
slave trade, they think that the expense should be equally shared by the Indian 
and Imperial Government. 
The Committee are of opinion that there should be for a time an increase, 
as recommended in the Report of the Committee on the Slave Trade, addressed 
to the Earl of Clarendon, as well as by the evidence of the naval officers, in the 
strength of the naval squadron ; and that it should be well supplied with steam 
launches to perform the inshore duties, which necessarily must be conducted in 
boats. 
The Committee feel that the disposal of the squadron must be left to the 
discretion of the commanding officers, and they would recommend that advantage 
should be taken of their experience as to the class of vessels to be employed ; and 
that they should be provided, as far as possible, with all recorded information on 
the subject. 
The Committee also recommend that some effort be made to provide the 
squadron with efficient and trustworthy interpreters. 
It has been stated in evidence, that some time must elapse after the measures 
above referred to have been put in force before the slave trade could be stopped ; 
and assuming that an efficient squadron is maintained, the Committee see that 
the disposal of the liberated slaves becomes a matter of large importance. They 
have recommended the liberation at Zanzibar of adult slaves on the assump 
tion that the Sidtan would enter into a new treaty ; should he, however, oppose 
the formation of a depot there, it will be necessary to seek some other locality for 
that purpose, and no other place combines the advantages possessed by the 
Seychelles Islands. 
It was given in evidence that the Church Missionary Society are willing 
to enter into an arrangement for the superintendence and education of the children 
at the Seychelles, similar to that entered into with the Government with respect 
to liberated children at Sierra Leone, the Mauritius, and at Nassuck in Bombay. 
In urging the necessity of retaining in this service trained and experienced 
men,^ the Committee consider that this principle most strongly applies to the 
Political Agency at Zanzibar. So complicated are our political relations at pre 
sent with the Sultan, and so difficult will be the task of dealing with him, that 
they do not hesitate to advise that the services should be retained of the present 
acting Political Agent, bearing in mind his long and tried experience of Africa, 
its climate, its slave-trade difficulties, his knowledge of the Sultan, and his acti- 
420. b vity