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'Egyptian Claims to Sovereignty over the Somali Coast.' [‎15v] (30/62)

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The record is made up of 31 folios. It was created in 1876-1879. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: 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. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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m
6
Guardafui as the limit of his dominions along the
African coast.
“It is for Lord Derby to consider whether the
condition in regard to Zeyla and Tajourrah should
be insisted upon. So far as Indian interests are con
cerned, Lord Salisbury is disposed to think that,
provided Bulhar and Berbera, which are the chief
sources of supply to Aden, be declared free ports,
it will be sufficient to require that the advantages
conceded at Zeyla and Tajourrah to British subjects
under the Indian treaties with the ruling Chiefs of
those places shall in no case be restricted.
“ As regards the limitation of the Khedive’s
jurisdiction along the coast to Cape Guardafui,
Lord Salisbury is of opinion that it might be inex
pedient to formally recognize such jurisdiction
along any part of the coast south of that point,
until the northern limit of the possessions of the
Sultan of Zanzibar has been definitively fixed.
“ Although the political interest of the British
Government in the east coast of Africa is small in
comparison with that which it lias in the southern
shore of the Gulf of Aden, it could not either
sanction, or be indifferent to, encroachments by the
Buler of Egypt on the territories of Zanzibar. If,
therefore, the dominions of the Khedive arc to be
recognized as extending soutli of Guardafui, it will
be necessary that the boundary in that direction
between Egypt and Zanzibar should first be deter
mined.
“ Lord Salisbury, however, considers it undesir
able that recognition of the Khedive’s sovereignty
as far as Guardafui should be delayed pending the
negotiations which would obviously be necessary,
and would probably be lengthy, before any agree
ment would be likely to be arrived at between
Egypt and Zanzibar in reference to the limit of
their respective possessions along the coast.
“ His Lordship desires, therefore, to suggest, for
Lord Derby’s consideration, that the two questions
should be treated as entirely distinct, and that Her
Majesty’s Consul-General in Egypt should be in
structed to press this view of the case upon the
Khedive. If it were intimated to His Highness
that, in regarding, for the purposes of the present
negotiation, Cape Guardafui as the limit of his
dominions along the African coast under the suze
rainty of the Porte, Her Majesty’s Government do
not desire to be considered as opposed to an exten
sion of those possessions to the south, provided that
such extension involve no aggression on Zanzibar,
but that, on the contrary, they w r ould be willing
hereafter to recognize any amicable arrangement
which may be come to between His Highness
and the Sultan of Zanzibar, and to give, if re
quested, any assistance in their power to effect
such an arrangement, it seems to Lord Salisbury
very possible that the Khedive would no longer
insist upon his objections, and that, assuming that
difficulties are not likely to be raised at Constanti-

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Content

A historical memorandum relating to Egyptian claims to sovereignty over the Somali coast, written by A W Moore, Assistant Secretary to 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. , in two parts, submitted 26 February 1876 and 11 October 1879.

The first part of the memorandum provides a historical narrative of events leading from the discovery in June 1870 of an Egyptian warship at Berbera on the Somali coast, with consequent suspicions that the Egyptian Government wished to occupy that place, up to the production of a draft Somali Coast Convention in 1876. The memorandum reproduces correspondence between the Resident at Aden, the Secretary of State for India, and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in which the authors consider the impact of Egyptian and Turkish influence at Berbera on British trade interests at Aden; on the independence of local Somali tribes; and on British efforts to suppress the slave trade. The memorandum also includes the terms by which HM Government agree to recognise Egyptian sovereignty.

Appendices to the first part of the memorandum reproduce several 'Treaty Relations with Tribes on the African Coast' and 'Geographical Notes'.

The second part of the memorandum opens with an account of events which preceded the signing in 1877 of the Somali Coast Convention by the British Government and by the Egyptian Khedive, describing the Khedive's attempts to extend the limit of proposed Egyptian sovereignty as far south as the Juba River, and subsequent British threats to enter into agreements with Somali chiefs independently of the Khedive.

The memorandum goes on to describe renewed discussions in connection with the procedure in Constantinople necessary to give validity to the Convention after it was signed by the Khedive, and reproduces a note issued by the Ottoman Porte, which asserts Turkish sovereignty over the territory covered by the Convention, but falls short of providing assurances against ceding any of that territory to other foreign powers.

The memorandum closes with the reproduction of correspondence discussing the text of a proposed firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). , to be issued by the Ottoman Porte, which would give validity to the Convention signed by the Khedive.

Appendices to the second part of the memorandum reproduce the text of the 'Somali Coast Convention' and an 'Agreement in regard to the Island of Socotra'.

Extent and format
31 folios
Arrangement

This file is in two parts - the first part consists of a historical narrative (ff 1-9), followed by two appendices (ff 10-12); the second part consists of a historical narrative (ff 13-29), followed by two appendices at the end (ff 30-31).

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 31; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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'Egyptian Claims to Sovereignty over the Somali Coast.' [‎15v] (30/62), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B3, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100035841288.0x00001f> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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