14
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE
13 July
J871.
Sir for India signs the consular commission instead
J. W. Kaye, of the Secretary of State for Foreign Aifairs.
193. He has always been an officer of the
Indian Government ?—He has always been, till
Mr. Churchill was appointed. Mr. Churchill
previously to his ajipointment had not been in
the Indian service. In 1867, Colonel Playfair,
an officer of the Indian Artillery, v/as British
agent and consul at Zanzibar, and, finding that
the climate did not agree with him (Mr. Churchill
will jirobably tell you presently how it liappened),
he and Mr. Churchill managed to change ap
pointments, Mr. Churchill being then consul
general in Algeria. Colonel Playfair accord-
ingly went to Algeria to be consul-general there,
and Mr. Churchill was appointed to be agent and
consul at Zanzibar. I believe it was approved
by the Bombay Government ; but Mr, Churchill
was the first officer representing British interests
at Zanzibar who was not an officer of the Indian
Government ; he became, by being so appointed,
an officer of the uncovenanted service of the
Indian Government, but he was not an Indian
officer, trained up in the school of Indian diplo
macy.
194. ^ That was done independently of the
mithority of the Indian Government here ?—
Yes, V e knew nothing about it here, but it must
liciYG been approved by the Bombay Grovernment
or it could not have taken place. I should state
that the agent and consul at Zanzibar receives
his insti notions jiartly from the Foreign Office
and partly from the Governments of India or
Bombay.
195. Has any inconvenience arisen from the
duplex action of the Foreign Office and the
India Office?—A good deal, I think, at dif
ferent times ; but in order to avoid discordant
instructions to the political agent and consul
proceeding from two different authorities at the
same time, we came to the arrangement that on
all matters connected with the slave trade the
entile instructions should come from the Foreign
Office, and that the India Office should super
intend the political and general business of the
agency. It was contended, too, at the India
Office, that as a very great proportion, indeed
the larger proportion, of the business of the agent
and consul at Zanzibar was the business of
the slave trade, we considered it was extremely
unjust to the India Government that the whole
of the expenses of the Zanzibar agency should be
defrayed, as they now are, by the Indian Govern
ment. ^ Indeed, in Sir Charles 'Wood’s time, it
was said, that, considering that almost the entire
business was business connected with the slave
^ade, he thought it might be advisable that the
x! oreign Office should take over the whole
management of it, and pay the whole expense.
This was demurred to, and, I believe, after
some coirespondence, the Foreign Office offered
to pay 200/. a year towards the expenses of it,
which was not accepted.
196. What is the total expense of the British
establishment at Zanzibar, ivhich is paid out of
the Indian revenues ?- I had the account made
out when recently we were in correspondence
with the Foreign Office on the subject; it was
calculated that if we had carried out the idea of
IVi( mg it, the share of each department would
lia-s ejieen 1,509/. the gross amount being 3,019 /.
n B hat are the treaty obligations, politi-
ol J, of the Sultan of Zanzibar to the British
Go’v einment ? Independent of all tlie slave trade
relations, the principal obligations arise out of tha
arbitrament that was carried out in 1860 with
regard to the division of the states of the old
Imaum of Muscat, Syed Saeed, between two ot
Ins sons. Before his death he divided his kino--
doni or principality, or whatever it might be
called, between two of his sons, leaving Muscat to
his son named Syed Thowaynee, and leavin<r
Zanzibar to his son named Syed Mejid; and the
kingdom was accordingly divided between the
two sons. It was afterwards arranged between
them that, considering that the Zanzibar state
yielded a larger amount of revenue than the other,
it would be equalised by Zanzibar pajino- to
J\^scat the sum of 40,000 dollars annWly.
Atter a certain time, as generally happens
amonpt eastern people, the Zanzibar man did not
pay the subsidy and he was two years in arrear.
Upon this, Syed Ihowanee appealed to our Go
vernment, and at the same time he prepared to
tit out a maritime expedition to compel the Sultan
ot Zanzibar to pay this subsidy. His ffeets were
getting ready when the Government of India
(who thought it would be extremely inconvenient
that this expedition should take place, and so,
perhaps, throw all the maritime chiefs along the
Persian Gulf into confusion), recommended him
to stop the expedition, and said that they would
send a special commission to inquire into the cir-
^m^ance^ Accordingly the Government of
Bombay (bir George Clerk beinir Governor
q. \ vjuvernor
at the time), supported by Lord Canning, sent a
special commission, at the head of which was
brigadier-general, now Sir William Coffiilan,
which inquired into all the circumstances and
managed to conciliate the parties, and ’their
conc usión was, that the Sultan of Zanzibar
should pay the arrears of the subsidy, i.e. the
80,000 crowns that were due, and that he should
go on paying the 40,000 crowns annually.
Ihe two chiefs agreed to this most cordially and
the award was guaranteed by Lord Canning, so
that It became, in point of fact, a substantive en
gagement, though it does not take the form of a
treaty. That, in a political point of view, is the
most important ma#er in the relations between
the Gov^nment of India and Zanzibar, and the
^pent Gi^ernment of India say, it is the only
thing that binds us to Zanzibar at all.
198. Are the relations between the two states
noAv on an amicable footing ?—There has been a
ffing history of revolution since that time. Syed
Thoweynee, with whom the arrangement was
made, and to whom the subsidy was jiaid, was
killed by bis own son, Syed Salim, who usurped
the government; upon which Syed Mejid said
m effect, »it was all very well to pay this to my
brother, but this man is a parricide and an
uprper and I demur to paying the money to
him. Then that, of course, brought up a new
embarrassment, and after a considerable amount
of discussion on the ^bject it was arranged that
ffieamoimtofthe subsidy should be paid Into the
Bombay Government, as the Sultan of Zanzibar
thought he could not properly pay the money to
^an who had killed his (Syed Mejid’s)brother.
He said he did not wish to shirk his obligations,
but he would pay the 40,000 crownsayeiS toth¿
Go\ einment, and they might do what they liked
wi ^ it. I think he paid in two years’ subsidy ;.
11 ill t le meantime another man rose up, called
Syec Azan-aben G bias, and he turned out Syed
Salim ; he was not one of the brothers, but he
was a distant connexion of the family, and it
was
