'Slave-dealing and Slave-holding by Kutchees in Zanzibar' [‎120v] (29/63)

26
No. 49.
No. 1298, dated 6th November 1868.
W. S. Seton-Karr , Esq., Secretary to Government of India, Foreign Depart
ment, with Governor General, to C. Gonne , Esq., Secretary to Government
of Bombay.
I am directed by His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor General in Council
to acknowledge the receipt of your Letter, No. 239, dated the 9th of October last,
relative to the question of the natives of Kutch who traffic in slaves at Zanzibar,
and to their amenability to British law and authority.
2. His Excellency in Council observes that the question of our right to inter
fere with the subjects of the Rao of Kutch, who were said to be connected with
the slave trade, was, by the letter from this Office of the 22d of April last, left
mainly dependent on the nature of the transactions in which these persons engaged,
and on their not merely owning and retaining slaves, but on their taking an active
part in slave-dealing,
3. The questions suggested in Sir R. Temple's letter just alluded to, have now
received a very full answer by the enclosures forwarded with your letter under
acknowledgment, and it is quite clear that the subjects of the Rao of Kutch are
actively engaged in this traffic in its most revolting form, and that little is wanting
on their part but increased facilities to promote this commerce throughout all the
west coast of Africa and in the interior.
4. His Excellency in Council has given his most attentive and earnest con
sideration to this whole subject, but whatever may be the difficulties of putting
down the slave trade when carried on by the Sultan of Zanzibar or his natural-
born subjects, His Excellency in Council can have no doubt that it is our
bounden duty to interfere with a high hand, and authoritatively to put down slave-
dealing when carried on by the subjects of a Native State with whom we have a
Treaty, where we have an accredited representative, and which is bound to be
guided by the advice and influence of the paramount Power in matters so
intimately connected with the very first principles of public morality and
justice.
5. In this view, His Excellency in Council desires that you will at once address
the 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. in Kutch on the subject. The Agent should point out to the
Rao the iniquity and cruelty of this traffic, and
* See p. 67, Records of the Bombay he should inform him that the British Govern-
Govemment, No. XV. ment, which, by the proclamation* issued by the
Rao in 1836, had evidently used its authority to
prevent the importation of slaves into that principality, will by no means permit
any of his subjects, when resident or domiciled in foreign parts, to engage in the
slave trade, on the pretence that they have acquired a right to do so either by
residing at Zanzibar, or by neglecting or refusing to register themselves before
the British Consul at that place. All traders or others, subjects of the Rao, who
who are proceeding to Zanzibar, or who are actually residing there, should be
warned that, though mere domestic slavery by Kutchees may be tolerated for the
present, the British Government will take steps to interfere with any prosecution
of the traffic in human beings, and that no claims for loss or compensation, in the
event of the release of any number of captives, sold or being hurried into slavery
will be listened to for a moment.
™ 6, 1 ®T ba y G o vern ment is further requested similarly to address
Mr. Churchill, the Consul and Agent at Zanzibar, to the same effect, and to
authorize him to interfere actively and authoritatively, and by all the means at
his disposal, to put down slave-dealing when carried on or attempted by Kutchees
His Excellency in Council observes that the result of the offer to the subjects of
Kutch to register themselves before the British Consul, though undoubtedly well
meant, appears to have been unfortunate; as it would seem that the Kutchees,
not registered, have conceived the notion that they are emancipated from all
control or interference, and that the Sultan himself favours these pretensions.
Mr. Churchill should be instructed to inform the Sultan that the Government of