'Mr Rothery's report to the Treasury in respect to the Muscat subsidy and Zanzibar Agency Expenses' [‎98v] (3/10)

iiohi i t
J:ov
is a contingency which need scarcely be antici-
P The amount due to India on this part of the
account, up to the end of the financial year, is
estimated at Es. 2,59,000, or 24,300^ The charge
in future years on the Imperial Government will
be Us. 43,200, convertible at the rate of exchange
for the year. t i -vx
Upon the second head of the case, the liability
of the Imperial Government to defray one half of
the expenses of the Zanzibar Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and Consulate
establishment, Mr. Rothery admits, (1) that that
Government ought to contribute towards the cost
of the establishment, and (2) that a moiety of such
cost would be its proper share. The only remain
ing question, therefore, is, from what date the
liability should commence. Mr. Uothery says, the
19th June 1872, when the Duke of Argyll tele
graphed to the Government of India,—" Imperial
" Government are to take half the expense." But
this Office has always persistently claimed to be
relieved of half the cost of the establishment from
the 24th January 1870, when a departmental
Committee, composed of representatives of this
Office, the Poreign and Colonial Offices, the Admi
ralty, and the Treasury, unanimously reported as
follows :—
" Meanwhile we are of opinion that, as so im-
" portant a part of the duties of the Agent and
" Consul at Zanzibar is, at present, connected with
" this question of the suppression of the Slave
" trade, it would be an equitable arrangement that
" the charges of the Zanzibar Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and its
" dependencies should be * equally shared between
" the Imperial and the Indian Exchequers."
Attention is particularly directed to the words
in italics, —" at present," i.e., in January 1870.
The recommendation of the Committee was at once
accepted by Lord Clarendon, then Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, who, on the 28th May
1870, made the necessary reference to the Treasury.
But the Treasury refused to accede to it. Conse
quently, after some intermediate correspondence,
the Duke of Argyll informed the Foreign Office, on
the 27th April lb7l, that this decision compelled
him to regard the whole question from a new point
of view, and to take " immediate steps through the
" Government of India to place the Zanzibar
" Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. on an entirely new footing with respect
to the requirements of Indian interests and
t j m ^ erce *.n Tliese ste P s would involve, as
Lord Granville at once saw and informed the
Treasury, the loss of all control over, and pro-
^ bably the entire neglect of, all Slave trade
questions at Zanzibar." But the Treasurv re
mained obdurate, though the Secretary of State in
Council did not.
On fte 4th August 1871, a Select Committee of
t !1 i Commons on the East African Slave
Trade recommended, amongst other things, that, as
* I believe these figures to be very nearly
right.—A. W, M.