"معاملة العبيد واحتجازهم من قبل الكوتشيين في زنزبار" [و‎‎١‎٢‎٢] (٦٣/٣٢)

29
No. 1.
No. 418.
Political Department.
Sir R. Temple, K .O.S .I., Secretary to the Government of India, to Secretary to
Government, Bombay.
Sir Fort William, the 22d April, 1868.
' I have received and laid before His Excellency the Governor General in
Council your Letter, dated 31st ultimo, No. 73, regarding the right of the British
Government to interfere with the subjects of the Rao of Kutch, established in
Zanzibar, in the matter of offences against British laws for the suppression of the
slave trade.
2. It appears to the Governor General in Council that the decision of the
question raised, turns on the following issues:
I Do the Kutch subjects in question merely own and hold slaves ?
II. Or do they deal in and make contracts regarding slaves, involving trans-
actions tantamount to slave-dealing P „ ^ . r, -i,
III. Does their case resemble that of Messrs. H. A. Fraser & Co., at Zanzibar,
which case was held to involve such an approach to slave-dealing as to
come under the prohibitions of English statute law ?
3 It may be assumed that the Kutchees are not British subjects in the ordinary
acceptation of the term, and that they are in much the same position towards the
British Government as the people of Kattiawar.
4 But if the transactions of the Kutchees are found to amount to slave-dealing,
then a question will arise as to whether these transactions can be stopped in the
same manner as the transactions of Messrs. Fraser & Co., m Zanzibar, weie
stopped, the Messrs. Fraser being British subjects. And this question turns on
another viz., can the people of Kutch be in this particular respect put on the
footing of quasi British subjects ; that is to say, m matters m which the British
Government is concerned, as it is in the question of slave-dealing, can that
Government, as the Lord Paramount of the State to which their immediate
allegiance is due, exercise a check over them in transactions beyond the
boundaries of India.
5 The last point will obviously demand legal consideration. But this might
well be deferred till the questions of fact have been taken up, and ^ h^s been
decided whether the Kutchees are engaged m slave-dealing w not. It the y are
merely slave holders, then there would seem to be no sufficient legal warrant for
interfering with them. ^ ^ .
6 I am therefore to request that information on the issues of fact above
mentioned may be furnished to the Government of India
I have, &c.,
(Signed) R. Temple,
Secretary to the Government of India.
No. 2.
No. 1256.
Political Department.
Bombay Castle, 9th May 1868.
The Secretary to the Government of India, No. 418, dated the 22d April 1868.
In reply to Government Letter, No. 73 of 1868, regarding the right of the
British Government to interfere with the subjects of the Rao of Kutch, esta-
11532. ^