Coll 34/3 'Slavery and Slave Trade: Red Sea and Arabia: Attitude of Ibn Saud' [‎39r] (82/886)

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(10) Thus endorsed, the request passes to the Finance Department, who
retain it and issue two written orders, one to the Passport Office, the
other to the Quarantine Department, instructing them to allow
so-and-so to pass freely and without payment of the outgoing dues.
Armed with these orders, a cavass accompanies the slave to the quay,
embarks him in the Legation launch, and places him on board ship."
(11) The Legation’s act of manumission is comprised in the signing by the
head of the mission of the manumission questionnaire, of which a
specimen is attached.( ] ) This questionnaire is sent in a despatch to
the authority who is to receive the ex-slave and travels by the same
ship as the slave.
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70. The procedure has, on the whole, worked smoothly. The attitude of
the local authorities, particularly in the cases of Royal slaves, has been described
in paragraphs 54-57.
71. The majority of ex-slaves are of Sudanese or West African origin and
are sent to Suakin or Port Sudan, the cost of the journey being met by the
charity fund of the British Legation. Once there, they are housed by the Sudan
Government in special lodgings maintained for the purpose and are fed at
Government expense; no time-limit is fixed for their stay, but they are advised
to look round for employment and make up their minds what they would like
to do.
72. Slaves of Abyssinian origin are sent to the British vice-consul at Jibuti.
Hitherto the latter has kept them until an escort has been sent down from the
British Legation at Addis Ababa to collect them and bring them up to Addis
Ababa, where they are then handed over to the Slavery Department of the
Ethiopian Government. His Majesty’s Minister at Addis Ababa is at present
endeavouring to obtain the agreement of the Ethiopian Government to such
slaves being handed over by the British vice-consul at Jibuti to the Ethiopian
consul there, in order to avoid the expense, which, as shown below, falls in a
majority of cases on His Majesty’s Government, of sending a special escort on
each occasion from Addis Ababa to Jibuti. The cost of their journey from Jedda
to Addis Ababa is borne by the Ethiopian Government in the case of slaves who
can be shown to have been enslaved subsequent to the date of the Emperor’s anti
slavery decree, the 31st March, 1924. In other cases, which in fact predominate,
the expense of the repatriation as far as Jibuti is borne by the charity fund of
the British Legation, Jedda, and from Jibuti to Addis Ababa, including the
expense of the escort, by His Majesty’s Government. In recent cases it has been
found possible to get work for these slaves on the Belgian Coffee Plantation in
the Adrussi country.
73. Few slaves of Yemeni origin take refuge; such as have done so have
been accepted and disposed of by the Sudan Government in the same way as
ex-slaves of Sudanese origin (see paragraph 71).
Local Manumission in Jedda.
74. A slave who seeks refuge sometimes objects to being sent out of Arabia;
this occurs particularly in the case of women born in slavery or enslaved m
childhood. These, knowing nothing of the world outside the harem, not
unnaturally fear to be sent amongst strangers in an unknown land. In such
cases, when the slave’s owner lives in or near Jedda, the Legation endeavours,
and so far has rarely failed, to induce him to manumit the slave locally. Ine
procedure for this has been described in paragraph 22. Female slaves so manu
mitted sometimes stay with their owners, sometimes go to live m one o± the several
institutions maintained by local charity, whence they go out to ?» uc
capacities as washerwomen and domestic servants, the wages from w ic e ra}/
their board in the institution.
'ie Utility of Manumission.
75. The relatively small number of slaves who have taken refuge ‘n this
Ration and been freed during the past eight years has been s a e t
aph 68, whilst the strength of the Saudi Governments resentment at the
O') Not printed.
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