Page 219 - Gulf Precis (III)_Neat

4.3
place. A circular letter was addressed to the Trucial Chiefs, reminding them
of their engagement in this respect; as usual, the Deni jabr and other Bedouin
tribes on the Batinah coast were the
• External A.. December 1890, No*. 390-313.
principal offenders.* An attempt to in­
troduce twenty-five slaves into Maskat on a French mail steamer from Aden to
Karachi was enquired into at Maskat, and six Arabs, shewn to have been implicat­
ed in the matter, were imprisoned by the Sultan. In September 1890, twenty-
five African slaves arrived at Maskat in the British India Steam Navigation Com­
pany's steamer Kistva from Karachi in charge of some Arabs. They were, after
inquiry by the Political Agent, liberated with the assent of the Sultan and sent to
Bombay. The letter to the Trucial Chiefs referred to above was followed by the
discovery and release of several Africans in captivity on the Pirate Coast. Two
men swam to the steamer Colder at Lingah and claimed protection as British
subjects from Aden ; they also gave information regarding the whereabouts of
three other Africans in captivity on the Arab coast.
55. On the Persian side the Governor of Bushire, in response to a request
from the Resident, issued orders forbidding
External A , January 1891, No* 27-36.
the traffic, which was most brisk at Charak
and Kais, the inhabitants of which refused to allow the Deputy Governor of
Lingah to make any enquiries.
56. The question of the increasing frequency of the importation of raw
slaves into the countries bordering on the Persian Gulf was brought to the notice
of Government. Many of the Omani boats were said to fly the French flag
and carry French papers, under cover of which they were able to practise their
trade in slaves with impunity, and various suggestions for effectually putting a
stop to the traffic had been made, which would doubtless receive consideration.
57. In 1891 some reports of the importation of fresh slaves into Kishm were
declared by the Governor of Bushire, after
Gulf Administration Report for 1891 *9'3.
enquiry, to be without foundation.
58. Information that several cargoes of slaves had passed up the Shat-el-
Arab for disposal in the villages along its
External A., January 1891, Nos. 138-167.
banks and at Basrah was not confirmed on
further enquiry. A dhow with twenty-nine negroes on board was detained at
Fao by the Mudir, and they were sent to Basrah. The Wali, however, satisfied
himself that they were not slaves, and they were allowed to return to the dhow.
59. In the course of the year the Turkish Consular Agent at Lingah
received from his Government a proclamation against slave traffic, issued in
accordance with the Slave Trade Treaty between the British and Ottoman Gov­
ernments for publication amongst Turkish subjects at that port.
60. On the subject of slavery and slave traffic in Turkish Arabia, the following
letter of Colonel Tweedie to Mr. Stratton,
External A., January 1S91, No*. 138-161.
Consul at Basrah, No. 710, dated 1st
December 1S90, is interesting:—
2. Two facts arc palpable. Innumerable houses In Iraki towns—notably Bagdad—
contain male and female Africans (including Gallas) of all ages from childhood upwards
who have been bought from slave importers. Bassra, Kuwait, Zubair, are among the
places near or on the Persian Gulf to which these poor, creatures are taken after being
landed from Africa. The fact that once bought on Turkish soil they are not sold again,
but become members more or less of the first buyer’s family, may indeed when old
enough walk out of their master’s house and assert their independence, without much
risk of the authorities openly at least interfering, alleviates their fate undoubtedly; while
forming one of the marked differences between slavery in the old European and American
and slavery of the Muslim types. Still, the root of the evil—the hideous traffic in
humanity—equally resides in both systems. The demand existing in Asiatic Turkey, as
in every Islamic country, tells of course on Africa, has its own share, and that a large
one, in kecjring the kidnappers busy in thousands of African villages.
3. All that they lay within your power has been done. I can but ask you to maintain
a vigilant altitude; and while abstaining from writing in such terms to the Bassra Gov­
ernment aa would give rise to umbrage (1 know of few Ottoman officials at rank in whose
own families domestics obtained in this way are not present), keep bringing the subject
on every opportunity to the notice of His Excellency the Wali, so that he may be persuad­
ed to exert himself for the fulfilment ol the obligation resting on him, as he admits in his

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