"الملف 35/85 III A 10 مسألة الأعلام الفرنسية" [و‎‎٤‎٨] (٦١٠/١٠٦)

Mr. Rogers, whom I then consulted, at once made arrangements to have
the dhow followed in case she slipped off in the night, and on the following 1 day
M. Ottavi again wrote to say that he had decided to refuse the renewal of the
right to fly French colours to the nakoda, thereby forcing him to apply for a
Sultan's flag at the Port Office.
It was now fairly evident that we must, give up hope of catching the
slavers red-handed, as there could be no doubt that they were aware that they
were objects of suspicion, and I therefore decided that when the nakoda applied
for his new papers, it might be as well to examine him. This I accordingly did.
His name is Ali-bin-Salim Wateib, and he stated that he was a native of Batna,
which is, I understand, an outlying part of Muscat, and that he was a subject of
the Sultan of Oman. When asked how it was that he had been sailing under
Erench colours, he said that his father, also a native of Batna, and a Sultan's
subject, who had owned the dhow before him, had been, in the habit of trading
between the Persian Gulf, Zanzibar, Comoro, and Madagascar, and that,
having married a Comoro woman, he was there given French protection and
a licence to fly the flag. On the death of his father two or three years ago, he
had been allowed to retain the licence, although he was not even a son by the
Comoro woman.
This appears to be a striking instance of the disregard of the Brussels Act
which the French authorities have been in the habit of showing in the issue of
their flag to persons who had no claim to it, and there can be little doubt that
both the father of Ali-bin-Salim Wateib, who was, I am informed, a well-known
slave trader, as well as Ali himself, used the flag thus acquired simply as a
protection from interference of British men-of-war.
Mr. Rogers has decided to withhold the grant of a provisional licence until
the inquiries which he has instituted are completed. It is, of course, much to be
regretted that we were unable to effect the capture of the dhow, and make an
example of the nakoda and crew, but it may be hoped that their detention here
will help to dispel the idea which I hear that the Persian Gulf Arabs seem to
hold, that we are no longer on the qu%-'Dwe i and that they can therefore revive
their old and nefarious ways with impunity.
It is, of course, improbable that many slaves are nowadays shipped away
from these islands ; but as I had the honour to report to your Lordship in my
despatch No. 31 of the 20th April of last year, it is believed that a certain
trade is still done between the Northern Coast of Portuguese East Africa and
the Persian. Gulf, and the case of kidnapping at Pemba, to which the above-
quoted despatch referred, shows that the presence of a man-of-war is still
desirable in these waters, especially during the first four or five months, that is
from April to August, that the wind blows from the south-west.
APPENDIX 4.
(A.)
M. Camhon to the Marquess of Lansdowne.
Amhassade de France, Londres, le 13 Mai 1904.
M. le Marquis,
Les recents entretiens que nous avons eus au sujet de la fermeture du
Tribunal Consulaire de France a Zanzibar paraissent avoir dissipe les quelques
doutes qui subsistaient de part et d'autre sur les consequences exactes de cette
mesure, et qui en avaient retarde jusqu'ici I'execution.