'File XXIX/2 Slavery in Kuwait' [‎52v] (104/296)

slave either informs the Munshi A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf. that the slave may be freed, when he finds him
to be of recent importation or of date subsequent to the Treaty ot Ibid, 01 in
doubtful cases, i.e .,when the date of the slave’s importation ^ cannot be clear y
ascertained, His Highness requests that the slave may be detained for from 10 to
15 days pending further investigation or the arrival of his master.
In the now rare cases of slaves imported before 1873 claiming freedom,
the Sultan is not asked to agree to their manumission unless cruelty or
inhuman treatment is proved, in which case freedom is given with the consent
of the Sultan ; otherwise when slaves not entitled to freedom under the treaty,
appear to be well fed and clothed and in good condition, they are returned to
their masters bv the Sultan, who causes the masters to sign a bond by which
they undertake to treat the slaves thus returned with kindness.
In the event of British Indian subjects or subjects of Native States
taking refuge in the Maskat Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. from a state of pseudo slavery, their free
dom has been demanded, as of right, from His Highness and admitted by him
as a matter of course, on the principle that the reduction of such persons to a
state of slavery can under no circumstances be legal. Of this category the
most likely case to occur is that of indigent Baluchis from Kalat-Mekran.
IV.— Trtjcial Coast.
Juthority.
Agreement of 1847 , re-affirmed in the case of the Chiefs of Shargah and
Abu Dhabi in 1873 (Aitchison, volume XII, pages 178 and 184 ).
Procedure.
Certificates are granted by or on the specific authority of the Resident
after investigation, on report by the Native Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Agent, and after
consideration of the views of the Shaikh concerned when such are put forward.
Geveral Notes.
(i) Experience shows that there is a disposition to use the word “ slave”
as a synonym for “ negro” in correspondence. This should be avoided. There
is a large free negro population in the Gulf and it does not at all follow that
because a man is a negro he is necessarily a slave, nor is the converse the case,
riz.i that a slave is necessarily a negro. He may be a Mekrani or an individual
of other denomination.
(ii) If a slave has served his master for a long time, the probability is
that the cause of his desire for freedom is of recent origin, and as it is very
seldom ttmt a negro slave can really be repatriated in practice, it is often
more in his interest that a reconciliation be effected between master and slave
by the execution of an undertaking from the former to meet the slave’s wishes
in some particular respect and treat him better.
(iii) As regards negroes who claim to he slaves, care should be taken
to ascertain that they are really bonded slaves and not free men and pearl
divers who have run away to evade the liabilities which they so readily incur.
If of the former category they should be dealt with as above indicated, hut if
the latter, arrangements should be made whenever possible to have the claims
against them decided by a Salifa Court, according to the usages of the pearl
diving industry.
In this connection reference is invited to the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. Pearl Divers
* Not with this. Agreement, 1879 (copy attached*).
(iv) Sub-offices should not correspond in this connection direct with the
Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Agent at Shargah except informally and on purely routine matters.
Gases involving discussion should be referred to this Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. .
(v) Attention is drawn to the fact that a slave does not properly speaking
become a British subject or protege merely by reason of his having been freed
by or through a British officer. The British Manumission Certificate is
nothing more than it purports to be, as now worded, and the bearer of one is