'Memorandum on Expenses of Zanzibar Consulate, &c.' [‎74r] (3/14)

Letter to Foreign
Office, 16th Dec.
1870.
Letter from
Foreign Office,
24th March 1871.
Letter to Foreign
Office, 27th April
1871 (Political).
payment of half the expenses out of Imperial Funds,
as recommended by the Committee.
This elicited a reply from the Duke of Argyll, to
the effect that “ His Grace was of opinion, when he
“ approved, through my letter of the 18th March
“ last, the report of the Slave Trade Committee,
“ that it was the intention of the recommendation of
“ para. 80 of that report that the expenses of the
“ Zanzibar Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and Consulate should be equally
“ divided, after increasing the aggregate amount by
“ the expenditure necessary to carry out the sug-
“ gestions of the Committee with respect to the
“ additional Consulates named in the report.”
The Lords of the Treasury having declined to
provide the necessary funds to enable the Earl of
Clarendon to act up to his intentions in the matter
of the Zanzibar Consulate expenses, his Lordship
communicated this decision to the Secretary of
State for India, who thereupon addressed the
following letter to the Foreign Office:—
“ 1 am directed by the Duke of Argyll to acknow
ledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th ultimo,
giving cover to a communication written by order
of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, in
which their Lordships decline to defray from the
Imperial Exchequer any part of the Consulate and
Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. at Zanzibar.
“ In reply to this, I am directed by the Secretary
of State for India in Council to observe, that it is
with extreme surprise and regret that he has been
made acquainted with this decision of the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury. On the suggestion
of Lord Clarendon, a Special Committee, at which
the Foreign, the Colonial, and the India Offices,
and the Admiralty, were represented, was appointed
to investigate the whole question of the East
African slave trade, and it was recommended by
this Committee that, inasmuch as the duties of the
Consul and Agent at Zanzibar, and the establish
ment under him, were to a great extent connected
with the suppression of the slave trade, and as the
suppression of the slave trade was an Imperial, not
an Indian question, the expenses of the Zanzibar
Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and Consulate should be equally divided
between the Imperial and Indian Exchequers.
This recommendation was Cordially sanctioned by
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and
the Secretary of State for India. But, as the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury have refused to
accede to this proposed arrangement, the Secretary
of State for India is compelled to regard the whole
question of the cost of the Zanzibar Establishment
from a new point of view, and to state distinctly his
opinions on the subject.
“The proceedings of the Special Committee
sitting at the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , the report of which was
laid before Parliament on the 24th January 1870,
clearly shows the importance which the Imperial
Government attach to the suppression of the East