'Slave-dealing and Slave-holding by Kutchees in Zanzibar' [‎118r] (24/63)

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punish your own subjects, and that Her Majesty's Government should punish theirs
and those of Chiefs under their protection.
The act of buying, selling, and possessing slaves is, according to the criminal
laws of India, a crime punishable in a manner less severe than murder, but more
so than theft, and it is a crime that it behoves me to punish whenever it is com
mitted by a British subject in your Highness's dominions. The subjects of the
Rao of Kutch, who have forfeited British protection in Zanzibar, are, in my
opinion, as much under the jurisdiction of Her Majesty's Consul as all other
British subjects who may not have inscribed their names in the register of the
Consulate, and, if I have not hitherto acted up to this principle, it is out of defe
rence to your Highness that I have not done so, but now that I have explained to
you the difference between protection and jurisdiction, I deem it to be my duty
definitely to put a stop to the holding of slaves by natives of India in your
Highness's dominions.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) H. A. Churchill.
Translation.
His Highness Syud Majid , Sultan of Zanzibar, to H. A. Churchill , Esq., C .B.,
Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Her Majesty's Consul, Zanzibar, 23d Shaban 1284 (21st
December 1867).
I have received your honoured letter, and have understood its meaning.
Let it not be hidden from your honour that, in the days of our late father,
Syud Saeed, Colonel Hamerton asked him, in the name of the British Govern
ment, to issue an order requiring all natives of India in his dominions to free their
slaves, and our father replied that he would do so, but asked for the natives of
India two years' time, and this on account of friendship.
This request was complied with, but before the expiration of the two years both
my father and Colonel Hamerton had died, and Colonel Rigby arrived, and,
acting up to what had been agreed between my late father and Colonel Hamerton,
he liberated all the slaves belonging to the natives of India.
On Colonel Rigby's departure from Zanzibar, Colonel Felly came and made
known to me, in writing, his wish that all British subjects in our dominions present
themselves before him and inscribe their names in a register, and they accordingly
presented themselves before him.
Then came Colonel Playfair, and sent us a register containing the names of all
British subjects residing in our dominions, and wrote to explain to us that the
names of all British protected subjects were in that register, and that, with the
exception of British subjects born on British soil, none others, whose names were
not in the register, should enjoy British protection.
A few days subsequently our good father, Suleiman bin Ahmed, issued a notice
which did not meet with Colonel Playfair's approval, and the latter wrote to us a
a letter stating that all sfich as had not yet entered their names in the Consular
register that he had sent us, should be considered as Arabs, and that those
alone who had caused their names to be written in the book were under British
protection.
We have agreed to this decision, for Colonel Playfair had brought us a letter
from the Honourable the Governor of Bombay requesting us to accept, without
hesitation, all Colonel Playfair's suggestions in matters connected with the
British Government, adding, that the British Government, reposing full con
fidence in that Officer's discretion, capacity, and experience, had sent him to
Zanzibar.
We therefore abided by what had been done by Colonel Playfair, and con-
sidered the status of all such as had not entered their names in the Consular
register as assimilated to that of the Arabs in reference to jurisdiction, and at
liberty to buy slaves, &c. Colonel Playfair knows this very well and will not
deny it. This continued during Dr. Seward's tenure of office, and until your
arrival. Such, Sir, is the true state of the case, but now we perceive the advent
of a different policy, viz., that slaves shall not be held by natives of any
11532. F