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 ac 
count. 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 jea 
lousies 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 pro 
bably 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 mis 
sionary 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 Zanzi- 
but 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 Bra 
zilian 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 suc 
cessful 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 corre 
spondence 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 Govern 
ment, 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 trust 
worthy person in the shape of a consular agent 
E 4 on 
B. Frei e, 
LC.S.I., 
K.C.B. 
7 July 
1871.