"معاملة العبيد واحتجازهم من قبل الكوتشيين في زنزبار" [و‎‎١‎٣‎٤] (٦٣/٥٦)

53
No. 1897 P., dated 20th December 1869.
C. U. Aitchison , Esq., Officiating Secretary to Government of India, Foreign De
partment, to C. Gonne , Esq., Secretary to Government of Bombay.
No 1 A h f y ice ™V nd , G : overn ? r General in Council your Letter,
a™? f ^ -i! i, and lts enclosure, in which the Acting Political
Agent at Zanzibar has reported his proceedings on receipt of the proclamation of
the Kao of Kutch, relative to the traffic in slaves by Kutchees in Zanzibar.
1 nin d 1 t0 the Bomba y Government to the letter from
tins Office, No. 960, dated 13th July 1869, and to state that His Excellency in
Council thinks it unnecessary to do more than to express his continued approval
of what has been done by the Political Agent in the matter. You are requested
to desire Dr. Kirk to communicate the views of the Viceroy and Governor General
m Council to the Sultan at a befitting opportunity.
rrl . • j 18tb January 1870.
. . papers transmitted to me by your Lordship's directions for my perusal
and opinion show that, in consequence of the instructions received at various
times from the Government of Bombay by the Agency at Zanzibar, an under-
standing has been arrived at with the Sultan, to the effect that all trafficking in
slaves by Kutchees and other natives of India in His Highness's dominions shall
henceforward be put a stop to; that Her Majesty's Agency shall not interfere
with the slaves held by the Kutchees under the Sultan's protection, provided the
said Kutchees do not engage in the slave trade; and that the Sultan shall take
upon himself to punish such persons engaging in the slave trade in his dominions,
failing which Her Majesty's Agency shall be entitled to interfere. Further, the
Rao or Ruler of Kutch, by a proclamation recently issued, has declared to his
subjects residing abroad that they are to consider themselves as being under the
jurisdiction of Her Majesty's Government, and the Rao's subjects have been
informed that they are amenable to British law.
The correspondence relating to the Kutchees possessing slaves in Zanzibar
offers, it will be readily admitted, a striking instance of the inconvenience arisino-
from the duplex authority under which the affairs of Zanzibar have hitherto been
placed.
In the time of Colonel Rigby, in compliance with the general tenor of the
instructions received by that Officer, the whole of the Kutchees and other natives
of India established in the Sultan's African territories were deprived of their
slaves, and Colonel Rigby's proceedings received the approval of Her Maiestv's
Government.
Later, the Sultan was allowed to take under his protection those natives of
Kutch who did not seek British protection, and, since that permission was
granted, few Kutchees have applied for British protection, preferring the Sultan's
rule under which they can buy slaves. The Order in Council of the 9th August
1866 seemed, moreover, to confirm this arrangement, by declaring all natives of
India and others to have forfeited their right to British' protection who had not
entered their names in the Consular register. It is undoubtedly on official decla
rations that the Sultan and the Kutchees base the right of the latter to buy and
sell slaves.
Soon after my arrival in Zanzibar, taking my stand on the broad views suo--
gested in the instructions from the Foreign Office, I called on the Sultan to cause
all the slaves beld by the Kutchees under his protection to be emancipated, but
His Highness Seyd Majid demurred at my request, and urged me to* refer the
matter to the Government of Bombay. The instructions received from Bombay
by the Agency led to the understanding referred to in the early part of this
Despatch, whence it will be observed that, while all trafficking in slaves has been
strictly prohibited, the holding of slaves for domestic purposes has been sanctioned
by the Government of India, and in one of the latest communications from Bombay