'Slave-dealing and Slave-holding by Kutchees in Zanzibar' [‎120r] (28/63)

Despatch, No. 399/84 of 1867, and the other, No. 1256, of the 9th May last, con-
veying to me a copy of Sir R. Temple's letter, No. 418, regarding the interference
of the British Government with the Kutchees established in Zanzibar, in the
matter of offences against British law; and I am requested to reply to the fol
lowing questions, viz., whether the Kutchees referred to merely own and hold
slaves, or whether they deal in, and make contracts regarding slaves, involving
transactions tantamount to slave-dealing, and if their case resembles in any way
that of Messrs. H. A. Fraser and Co., at Zanzibar, which was held to involve
such an approach to slave-dealing as to come under the prohibition of English
law.
In reply to these questions, I have the honour to state, that the Kutchees referred
to in my letter. No. 399/841, namely, those who have elected Syud Majid's pro
tection to that of Her Majesty's 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. , do not merely own and hold
slaves by inheritance or otherwise, but they trade in slaves, purchasing and selling
them, bartering, transferring, and removing them from place to place. In point
of fact, they are regular slave-dealers. The Sultan's pretensions are that Her
Majesty's Consulate having declined to protect the individuals (British subjects as
well as Kutchees), whose names were not registered in the books of the Consulate,
they are at liberty to act in his dominion as they may please, so long as they do
not do anything against the laws of his country, and so far his claims cannot be
contested ; but he goes a step further, and says, "having declined to protect these
" subjects of yours and these natives of India whose country is under your pro-
" tection, you have thereby lost all jurisdiction over them ; they may do as the
« Arabs do. They may buy slaves at Kilwa, and convey them to Zanzibar or
« elsewhere in my dominions, and sell them by auction in the public market.
" Thev may employ their slaves on their estates; they may transfer them to
" whomsoever they please; they may hire them out at so much a day. When
" the Northern Arabs come down from Muscat and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and the
«• value of slaves rises in the market, they may sell their slaves (provided they do
« not sell them to the Northern Arabs, who succeed in getting them nevertheless),
« and with the profit they may have made they may invest in more slaves."
Nay, they may even send kidnapping expeditions to the Nyassa, and, at a loss of
life that I shudder to think of, they may bring down, or cause to be brought, to
the coast a fresh supply of these wretched creatures. The Sultan's laws do not
prohibit these acts, and Her Majesty's Indian subjects and the Kutchees who are
not protected by the Consulate, having been assimilated, to all intents and pur
poses, (says Syud Majid) to his own subjects, cannot be punished for acts that are
not prohibited in his dominions. . . r
The question at issue, therefore, appears to me to be, whether it is expedient tor
the British Government, desirous as they are of suppressing the slave trade on this
coast of Africa, having effectually suppressed it on the west coast, to relinquish
their hold on the Kutchees who form the wealthiest class of the trading population
of Zanzibar. The question as to whether that of the Kutchees resembles that of
Messrs H A. Fraser & Co. requires no special answer after what has been said.
It may be asked, then, why, in the face of such a state of things, the whole of
the subiects of the Rao of Kutch, established in the Sultan's territory, and they
amount to about 3,000, have not long since gone over to the Sultan of Zanzibar.
The suddenness of the measures adopted by Colonel Rigby m emancipating the
slaves of the Kutchees, without exception, some years ago and the suspense m
which they have been held as to the ultimate result of this question may to a
certain extent account for their being satisfied with the protection under which they
found themselves; but I venture to say, that so soon as it will become known that
they may engage in the slave trade by taking their names off the books of the
Consulate, the majority of the men of capital now under our protection and
control will go over to the Sultan, solely to enjoy the privileges that the laws of
Zanzibar afford them with regard to the slave trade. I he demand for slaves
would thus increase by at least one third, and the horrors of slavery would acquire
a fresh impulse. It is, moreover, well to be prepared for a claim for compen
sation when the Kutchees realize the fact that Colonel Rigby, the British Political
Agent at Zanzibar, had no right to deprive them of an article of trade, the pos
session of which was no crime, neither in the country which they had elected as a
residence, nor that from which they had come.
11532.
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