"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٩‎٢] (١٢٦٢/١٠٠٩)

2492
been Irft, however, to the discretion of the Political Resident in the
Persian Gulf; and the sums realised are still withheld from the local
authorities when there is reason to think that their return to the Shaikh
might indirectly render the punishment nugatory.
History of the external slave trade of the Persian Gulf and of
British preventive operations, 1852-73.
Commence
ment of
sjstematio
operations,
1852.
Operations
during the
KeBidentship
of Captain
Kembali,
1852-55.
We now pass on to consider the manner in which the agreements
obtained and the enactments passed by the British Government have
been utilised for the suppression of the slave trade in the Persian
Gulf; and in doing so we need not go further back than 1852,
one of the earliest years in which the legal position in the Gulf, in
consequence of the arrangements then recently made with the Turkish
and Persian Governments, was such as to admit of general action^
With the Hrst operations of all, about to be described, though they did
little more than demonstrate the magnitude of the evil, the names of
Captain (afterwards Colonel Sir) A. B. Kembali and of Captain Felix
Jones, Indian Navy, two successive Political Residents at Bushehr, are
honourably associated.
In the summer of 1852 the steam vessel Tigris^ of the Indian
Navy, Lieutenant Tronson, was placed on slave duty in the Gulf with
orders to watch the Batinah coast and other suspected localities; but
her equipment was unsuitable for the duties that she had to perform,
and the results of her cruise were inconsiderable. It was at once realised
by Captain Kembali, the Political Resident, that no assistance was to
be expected from natives of the Gulf • and, even at this early stage
of the operations, the Resident suggested that preventive measures
would probably be more efficacious if they were taken on the African
coasts from which the slaves were exported. In 1853, the slave trade
having been shown to prevail in the Gulf to an appalling extent,
Captain Kembali recommended naval surveillance of the Batinah and
East African coasts ; but there was a serious deficiency of ships, and
the Government steamship " Queen, ,, which was made available for
a short time, apparently effected nothing; some slaves were captured,
however, by the H.E.I. Company's Schooner Constance/'' A few
months later, at the beginning of ]854 ; Captain Kemball renewed his
representations and advised that a steamer, with a small sailing vessel
to assist her, should be sent to cruise off the South Arabian coast in the
latitude of Makalla from the 15th of March to the 1st of June; but
again there was difficulty in providing a suitable vessel, and none was sent
until 1855, when the " Queen,^ in the month of July, began to cruise
off the ^Oman coast between Ras-al-Hadd and Masqat, and was relieved
later in the season by the corvette " Falkland/'' The operations of 1855
were absolutely barren of results. From 1852 to 1855 inclusive, the
number of slaves liberated by the British authorities in the Gulf was
78, of whom only 15 were rescued at sea.
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