Page 212 - Gulf Precis (III)_Neat

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CHAPTER IV.
Anti-Slave Trade Operations in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,
1874—1904.
(i) Operation from 1874 to 1883.

24. We shall now see what operations were carried on by the British Gov­
ernment for the suppression of the Slave Trade in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf
of Oman in pursuance of the treaties and engagements with the Asiatic and
African powers and their own Legislative enactments and orders.
25. The naval arrangements made are explained in the Precis on Naval
arrangements in the Persian Gulf.
26. In 1873, two Dhows were captured by the Nimble on suspicion of
being engaged in Slave Trade and brought
Political A., January 1874, Nos. 217.123.
to Maskat for adjudication by the Vice-
Admiralty Court there. What was the result of the investigation it does not
appear from our records.
27. The Government of India did not think it necessary to require a
report in detail of the circumstances attending the capture of Slave Dhows,
which operations were not within the control of this Governm'ent (Government of
India to the Bombay Government, No. 14-P., dated 2nd January 1874).
28. In October 1875, Lieutenant-Colonel Miles, Political Agent at Maskat,
reported that during the year 1875 the im­
Political B., December 1875, Nos 6-7.
portation of fresh slaves into the dominions
of His Highness the Sultan of Maskat from East AJrica was very small. Not
more than forty were known to have been landed, and it was probable that the
total number imported did not exceed one hundred. Three Dhows arrived at Sur
during April and May and landed a few* slaves, about twenty altogether, they had
brought up as part of their cargo. One of these vessels was owned by a native of
Sur and a subject of the Sultan ; the other two belonged ro the Pirate Coast, but
they were all under French Colors having obtained papers at Nossi Bo or
Zanzibar, their object in this being doubtless to evade search by British Cruizers.
Another batch of fifteen slaves was landed at Mattrah, a town two miles from
Maskat, one night in May 1875, and the Dhow got away undetected. This vessel
was under British Colors and unfortunately there was no man-of-war in the
Gulf of Oman at the lime.
These were all the importations into Oman known to have occurred during
the season. As regards the Persian Gulf it was reported that two or three slave
Dhows had entered the Gulf only, one of which was a Turkish vessel bound
from Jeddah to Basra or Kuwait and had a cargo of about 50 Abyssinian slaves,
chiefly young girls and eunuchs on board.
29. During the first part of the season, from March to June in 1875, no
watch was kept on the Oman coast, but since then a strict search was maintained
by Her Majesty’s “ Daphne ” and " Rifleman," under the direction of Captain
C. E. Foot, Her Majesty’s “Daphne”, the senior officer of the Persian Gulf
Squadron. No captures however were made.
30. It was apparent that so far as the coast of Oman was concerned the
old practice of running full cargoes of slaves had for the moment been altogether
abandoned, the dealers preferring to ship the slaves in driblets and trust to con­
cealment or to passing them off as sailors when boarded by Her Majesty’s ships.
31. The import trade in slaves was, in the opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel
Miles, far too profitable for the Arab dealers to give it up without making every
effort to evade the restrictions on it. They were well aware now that both the
French and Turkish flags gave immunity from search of British Cruizers an
thus protected the trade and they had learned, moreover, that there were no
difficulties in the way of their obtaining papers at the French settlenicnts an
Consulates in the Indian Ocean or Turkish papers at ports in the Red . ea, an
it was probable that future importation would be almost entirely coniine to
vessels sailing under one or other of these flags.