Page 684 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

640 SLAVE TRADE.

of His Highness the Imaum for an immediate inquiry into ,ha facts
of the case; and in the event of the suspicion proving well foun
make an application to His Highness to lay an embargo upon su I
vessels, until a reference could be made either to the per<L„ n u
Residency, or to the Government. u
The practicability of inducing His Highness the Imaum of
and the Arab Chiefs in the Gulf, to prohibh and
a. d. 1837-38.
abolish the traffic in slaves altogether,
was at
one time brought under consideration, but the following
arguments and
facts, urged at the lime, proved the utter inutility of
so partial a
measure :—
That in the first place it would be impracticable to induce His High­
ness the Imaum of Muskat and the Arab Chiefs in the Gulf to put to
an end the traffic in slaves without such a large pecuniary sacrifice
being made on the part of the British Government as would most likely
be considered altogether inexpedient; and in the second place, that
were such a sacrifice made, the humane and philanthropic objects of
the Right Honorable the Governor in Council would still be defeated
by further impediments and difficulties, for which no remedy could
probably be found.
Article IX. of Sir W. G. Keir’s Treaty of 1820, as before men­
tioned, had never been held binding to the fullest import of which it
could bear the application.
Since that date a period of seventeen years had passed over without
the question having been agitated, and thus the several parties concern­
ed had acquired a sort of prescriptive right, never questioned by the
Government, to consider that Article IX. was inserted solely with the
view of guarding against the forcible carrying away of individuals for
the purpose of selling them as slaves, and not meant to prohibit altoge­
ther a traffic which is not only in accordance with the letter and spirit
of their religion, but which long continuance and custom have rendered
almost indispensable to their domestic comfort.
Assuming, however, that Article IX. of the Treaty of 1820 bears
the interpretation best suited to our views and policy, and that our right
to act upon it, although allowed to lie so long in abeyance, is neverthe-
consider it
less liable to be called into operation whenever we may
expedient to do so, still it must be borne in recollection that even on
side of the Persian Gulf alone, neither His Highness the
the Arabian
Imaum, nor the Chiefs of Sohar, Kateef, or Koweit, are parties to this
Treaty, and therefore their consent to a total prohibition of the tra c in
our fellow-creatures could only be obtained by means of negotiation,
and the offer of such advantages as would in their estimation C0™P
in the surrender of a practice uniting
sate for the loss they sustained,

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