ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA).
39
^vork done in these latitudes much better than
We could do it ourselves.
484. it might materially assist us. with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, if we could show a
Certain saving on the per contra side of the account.
Have you anything to say of the depot
^or liberated slaves at Aden ?—I would take that
^epot as an instance ; the slaves were necessarily
I'cleased there, for they could not be sent back,
%d could not be sent on to Bombay, and there
Was nothing for it but to release them there ; of
Course in a place like that there is very limited
power of absorption for such labour as those
slaves could furnish, and such a want was
'Very quickly filled up. There remained then
an overplus of a particular kind of labour at
Aden. Why ? because there were no steamers
in which they could be sent to such a depot as it
^as been proposed to establish at Zanzibar, where
^bere would have been an unlimited power of
absorption, and you could not trust them to go
anywhere else ; they would have been made slaves
iniinediately, if you had sent them to one of the
neighbouring ports of the Red Sea.
485. You have recommended, I think, that the
Colony of the liberated slaves at Zanzibar should
be under the flag of the Sultan of Zanzibar ?- -
Yes, for this reason ; that in the first place, if it
Was done in good faith it would greatly disarm
^be Sultan of Zanzibar’s objections to anything
cf the kind, if we proved to him, as we have
proved before to his predecessors, that we did not
Want to seize his kingdom, and oust him ; we
®bould then carry him with us, instead of having
him against us. It would get rid of all the jealousies
which would certainly be created among
other European powers by our establishing a
Colony of our own there, because they never
Would believe that it was done merely for the
purpose of putting a stop to slavery, and we
^bould have sullenness and intrigues, and probably
a good deal of underhanded attempts to
Ondo what we were doing there ; whereas, if we
i^crely had it on the same footing as our missionary
establishments, and as the missionary
establishments of the French are on there, you
ßct rid at once of all local, as well as all European,
jealousies.
486. It was mentioned to the Committee that
^be Sultan of Zanzibar was not able to enforce
^be decrees which he had issued ; would he be
^ble to protect this colony, do you think, if it
^^as under his flag?—He would be backed by
cor own power. He would know that the con-^ni’s
flag, and the naval force at our command.
Were there to protect our subjects and his autho-^^ty
; the two would be bound up together. The
^crthern Arabs would set him at defiance, pos-^^ly,
of whom he would certainly be very much
^Aaid ; but they would think twice before they
Meddled with an English establishment which
^^s supported, not only by the Sultan of Zanzibut
any insult to which would certainly be
Avenged by our own force in those seas.
487. Sir J. I gathered from you that
your impression was that if the blockade on the
Coast of Africa were maintained as strongly
that on the West Coast of Africa was main-^iiied
in former years, by that means you would
^n^cipate a speedy stoppage of the slave trade ?
Yes.
488. Have you considered that the successful
^rmination of the slave trade on the West Coast
Africa is considered by many to have been
more due to the closing of the places at which Sir
slaves could be received, than even to the c
vigorous prosecution of the blockade cn the coast
itself ; I allude to the fact that when the Brazilian
Government carried out most loyally their ^
treaties, and when the places at which slaves
could be received were limited to the coast of
Cuba, the operations of the navy became successful
rather by a rigid blockade of the coast of
Cuba, than by watching with strict vigour, and
large numbers of ships, the various ports from
which slaves could be shipped ?—Certainly ; I
meant to include in the operations of the squadron
the whole of the Persian Gulf also, and I think I
mentioned in one of my answers that it was quite
necessary that those ports should be watched
carefully, by an agency on shore, in the shape of
an efficient consular agency maintained in correspondence
with our political agent and consul
at Muscat, and also by an efficient squadron at
sea.
489. Are the places at which the foreign slave
trade from the East Coast of Africa is at present
actively carried on limited to such points as could
be conveniently watched ; or rather, is it not a
very great extent of coast, so that if you stopned
the trade, and entirely stopped it at one place, it
would spring up at another, and make it very
difficult to complete the arrangement without
treaties with Persia and other places on the
P ersian Gulf ?—Y es, certainly. Y ou cannot limit
your operations to Zanzibar and Muscat; you
must extend your operations to the independent
tribes with whom you have already treaties,
which, if they were properly enforced, would do
all that you required; and I think the matter
should be pressed on the Persian Government.
I see the minister at Teheran objected to take
any action with respect to the Persian Government,
on the ground that we might lose the
footing that we already have. I have no doubt
he knows the bearings of the case much better
than I do ; otherwise I should have been very
much disposed to doubt that. I believe it is one
of those points in which you can succeed by
persistent and perpetual pressing on a court,
without hectoring or bullying; if you do not
convert them by reason, they come to regard
it as a concession to a very importunate person,
whom it is not desirable to thwart, or refuse a
small concession to. I think that if pressure had
been applied to the Government of Persia in that
way, without presuming to dictate to them, that
we should have carried our point, as we have
done elsewhere.
490. The operation that is contemplated (I
speak navally) is a blockade of some 4,000 miles
of coast ; 2,000 miles of Africa, and 2,000 miles
of Asia ?—Probably it might amount to that.
491. That would require a squadron of 30 or
40 ships, instead of from three to seven ships,
would it not?—Yon would take into account
that it is only during certain seasons, and if you
have good information of what is going on at the
ports along the coast you may very much limit
the number of ships employed. I may mention
that very recently, one of the principal persons
who was intended to give information to our
agent in the Persian Gulf on this subject, and on
whose information he relied, was very broadly
accused of being a very great slave importer
himself; our agent was unable for want of means
to employ anyone else, but if he had had a trustworthy
person in the shape of a consular agent
E 4 on
B. Frei e,
LC.S.I.,
K.C.B.
7 July
1871.
