"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٩‎١] (١٢٦٢/١٠٠٨)

2491
tte interior of ^Oman, the necessary sum of 1180 was advanced by tlae
Government of India and was debited to Her Majesty's Treasury with
the approval of the Home Government.
Until 1889 it seems to have been the custom to deport liberated, Disposal of
slaves, if unwilling to remain in the Persian Gulf, to Bombay ; but ®^ g cipa e
at length, in the year mentioned, the Bombay Government animadverted
on the constant increase, in consequence of this procedure, of an exci
table and turbulent element in the population under ^ their charge.
Efforts were accordingly made to discover an outlet in some other
direction; but the Government of the Straits Settlements, Sarawak and
the Fiji Islands were unwilling to receive emancipated Africans, and
the reply of the Government of British North Borneo was not entirely
favourable. Matters remained as they were until 1897, when the
Government of India themselves began to entertain objections to the
importation of liberated negroes into India and suggested to ^"©r
Majesty's Governments an arrangement by which freed slaves should
instead be sent to East Africa. The authorities in Zanzibar haying
signified their approval of the scheme and held _ out a prospect ot
employment for emancipated slaves in the Sultan's plantations m
Zanzibar and Pemba, the Residents at Bushehr and Baghdad were also
consulted; the former. Colonel Meade, replied that the proposal was
unobjectionable, unless on the ground of expense; while the latter.
Colonel Loch, reported that the slaves released in Turkish Iraq almost
always belonged to the domestic servant class and were unwilling _ to
leave the country after emancipation, and that, from the Baghdad point
of view, no arrangements were necessary. The scheme was according y
sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government in 1889 and has been conti
nuously enforced ever since. Manumitted slaves are now ordinarily
sent by native sailing vessels from Masqat to Zanzibar at a cost ot about
Rs. 15 a head: but in some cases, when vessels under trustworthy
masters are not available, it has been found necessary to despatch them
by steamer at a cost of abont Rs. 160 each Between February 1900
and May 1902, 85 manumitted slaves were despatched irom Masqat to
Zanzibar, of whom only 7 were sent by steamer. These arrangements
have received the approval of His Majesty's Government, by whom the
cost of the slaves' passages is borne.
Until 1900 it was the invariable practice that fines levied on the ^P e sal ot
subjects of Arab Shaikhs in the Persian Gulf on account of offences ^ o ^ nt
connected with the slave trade should be recovered from the chiefs and of s ) ave .
credited to the British Government, by whom all the charges connected trading
with the suppression of the slave trade and the liberation of slaves were offences in
defrayed. In 1900, however, on the recommendation of Mr. Gaskin the Gulf.
Assistant Political Agent in Bahrain, and of Colonel Kemball, Political
Resident, the Shaikh of Bahrain was permitted to retain a fine, on
condition of not returning the money to the person fined; and the
Secretary of State for India and the Lords Commissioners of the
Treasury agreed that a similar procedure mi g ht ;, be
future, in the case of the Shaikh of Bahrain and the Trnaa Sha khs
and that the proceeds of fines need no longer be credited to the British
Exchequer. The question of the disposal of the money m each case has