'Memorandum on Expenses of Zanzibar Consulate, &c.' [‎77v] (10/14)

10
Indian Exchequer one halt of the expenses ot Sir
B. Frere’s mission, the Duke of Argyll especially
mentioned the subsidy; the exact words were,—
* * * t*i am instructed to say that the ex
penditure which is now sanctioned by the Secretary
of State in Council on behalf of the revenues of
India is the one half of the subsidy paid by Zanzibar
to Muscat under the terms of Lord Canning’s arbi
tration, should it be found necessary to relieve
the Ruler of Zanzibar from that subsidy, together
with one half of the (territorial) permanent ex
penses of the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and Consulate, as recom
mended by the Slave Trade Committee which sat
at the Foreign Office, and which recommendations
were agreed upon both by the Foreign and the
Indian Departments of Her Majesty’s Govern
ment.”
Sir B. Frere’s action in the matter may be told
in his own words,—
* * * “It would have been within the letter
of my instructions to have given His Highness
(Sultan of Muscat) at once a distinct assurance
that the subsidy would be regularly paid to him
from Her Majesty’s Treasury at Bombay, but I
thought the assurance would come with more effect
from His Excellency the Viceroy, and I wished to
comply with the obvious wish of His Highness, that
the two questions of slave trade and subsidy should
be kept clearly distinct and separate.” * * *
« It was under this conviction, and in considera
tion of the time which must necessarily elapse
before the question of the subsidy can be defini
tively disposed of, that I authorized Syed Turki to
draw at once on 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. at Muscat for
#40,000 (8,500/.), being one year’s arrears of sub
sidy, and, at the expiration of three months, for a
further sum of # 20 , 000 , being half the subsidy due
for the current year, unless other measures for
settling the question should be taken in the in
terim. * * *
“I would submit, for the consideration of His
Excellency the Viceroy, that the Government of
India should assure His Highness, by an autograph
letter from His Excellency the Viceroy, that the
Zanzibar subsidy will be regularly paid, with all
arrears, from the Bombay Treasury to His High
ness’s agent in Bombay, as long as His Highness
abstains from all aggressions on Zanzibar, and ob
serves the obligations he and his predecessors have
entered into regarding the suppression of the slave
trade.”
“ The subsidy thus paid should, I think, be punc
tually and peremptorily recovered from Zanzibar.”
In consequence of this strong recommendation
the Viceroy of India instructed 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.
at Muscat to give the Sultan of Muscat a guarantee
of the nature indicated by Sir B. Frere. In re-
Letter to Foreign
Office, 25th Oct.
1872.
Enclosures in
Letter from India,
No. 87 of 1873.
Letter from India,
No. 87 of 1863. •