File 5301/1928 'Persia: Anglo-Persian Slavery Convention. Slavery in the Persian Gulf' [‎151r] (307/685)

[Thi
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Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.
PERSIA.
i CONFIDENTIAL
26 { | ^Ijarch 18, 1929.
Section 10.
IE 1407 / 259 / 34 ]
No. 1.
Sir B. Clive to Sir Austen Chamberlain.—{Received March 18.)
£° ^ ^ Tehran, February 23, 1929.
1 ’ i the honour to inform you that on the 7th February the Minister of
Justice presented to the Majlis, asking for its immediate ratification, a Bill dealing
with the manumission of slaves arriving in Persian territory and making slave-dealing
an offence punishable with imprisonment of from one to three years. I beg to transmit
to vou herewith a translation of the Bill in question.
* 2. The submission to the Majlis of this Bill by the Persian Government is to be
welcomed after the attitude which it formerly displayed and which Mr. Parr reported
in his despatch No. 472 of the 7th November last.* I learn that the Government was
extremely annoyed at the disclosures made in the newspaper “Shafaq Surkh” in
November and which I brought to your notice in my despatch No. 489 of the
‘22nd November last. Both the Government employee who gave the information to
the newspaper and the newspaper reporter who had it inserted were severely
reprimanded, but their action has resulted in bringing the Persian Government to a
sense of its responsibilities to civilisation, and the disclosures mentioned above
received confirmation to a certain degree during the debate on the Bill, a Deputy of
the Government party admitting that there were places in South Persia where the
slave traffic was being carried on.
3. In my discussions with the Minister of Court in regard to a new Slavery
Convention he has twice referred to this Bill as showing the determination of the
Persian Government to eradicate slavery from the Persian dominions.
4. 1 am sending a copy of this despatch and its enclosure to the (government of
India and to His Majesty’s High Commissioner in Iraq.
I have, &c.
R. H. CLIVE.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Law forbidding the Purchase and Sale of Slaves on Persian 1 erritory and according
them Freedom on their Arrival in Persia.
(Passed by the Majlis on 18th Bahmau, 1307 (hebruary 7, 1929).)
IN the Kingdom of Persia no one is recognised as a slave and every slave that
comes to Persia or to Persian coastal waters will be ipso facto fiee. . n t \ person
buying or selling a human being as a slave or exercising any other proprietory rigjits
over a human being or acting as an intermediary and/or being concerned in tie la c
of slaves will be punished by imprisonment for a period of from one to three }ears.
As soon as anv Government agent is informed of anyone being tieatec as a s axe,
he shall immediately take steps to bring about that person’s freedom and convey t ie
information to the nearest court of justice so that the person violating t us aw may
punished.
[744 s—10]