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6. Such ofour subjects as may marry persons subject to British jurisdiction, as well
as the issue of all such marriages, arc hereby disabled from holding slaves, and all slaves
of such of our subjects as are already so married are now declared to be free.
7. All our subjects who, once slaves, have been freed by British authority or who
have long since been freed by person, subject to British jurisdiction, arc hereby disabled
from holding slaves, and all slaves of such persons are now declared to be free
All slaves who, after the date of this decree, may lawfully obtain their freedom, are
for ever disqualified from holding slaves, under pain of severe punishment.
8. Every slave shall be entitled, as a right, at any time henceforth, to purchase his
freedom at a just and reasonable tariff, to be fixed by ourselves and our Arab subjects.
The purchase money, on our order, shall be paid by the slave to his owner before a Kadi,
who shall at once furnish the slave with a paper of freedom, and such freed slaves shall
receive our special protection against ill-treatment.
This protection shall also be specially extended to all slaves who may gain their
freedom under any of the provisions of this decree.
9. From the date of this decree, every slave shall have the same rights as any of our
other subjects, who are not slaves, to bring and prosecute any cornplaiuts or claims before
our Kadis.
Given under our hand and seal this 15th day of El Hej, 1397 (1st August A. D. 1890)
at Zanzibar.
(Seal) (Sd.) Ali-bin-Said,
Sultan of Zanzibar
63. The question was raised whether a similar decree could not be passed
by the Sultan of Maskat.
Secret En February 1891, Nos. 472*475.
In an able memorandum Colonel Mockler showed how inexpedient would be
the promulgation of a decree of the kind on Oman.
The memorandum is an important document throwing a light on the
condition of Oman and is therefore printed below.
MEMORANDUM.
The present Sultan of Zanzibar is sovereign of a “ protected State," the area of hia
dominions in round numbers only some 800 square miles, having a population of about
250,000, his annual revenue some £300,000, his subjects are not divided into separate
tribes inhabiting separate districts having Chiefs of their own. He is their one head, and
they lie, so to speak, in the hollow of his hand to control. Its small extent and the insular
position of his territory makes all parts of it so easily accessible to the " protecting
• He has a standing army of 1,200 men armed State" as well as to his Own soldiers* and
with breech-loaders. officials that he can afford to risk or even despise
popularity in the matter of issuing decrees in conformity with the wishes of the " pro­
tecting State," being pretty certain of support and assistance if necessary from the u pro­
tecting power ” in giving eifect to such decrees. The status and surroundings of the
Sultan of Muscat (or Oman) are different. He is but little more than Chief of the Chiefs
of Oman, primus inter pares. The area of his dominions (80,000 square miles) xoo times
larger than that of Zanzibar, having a population (1,500,000) 6 times greater, but his
annual revenue (a large factor in administrative power) £30,000 is only one-tenth that
of the Sultan of Zanzibar. His nominal subjects are divided into many different tribes
continually fighting among themselves, occupying separate tracts of country, whose allegi­
ance is given in the first place to their own tribal Chiefs. His territory stretches back
to the great Arabian Desert and in most part is mountainous and little known to
Europeans. His position as Sultan depends on the fickle support of the Chiefs and their
tribesmen, which he endeavours to gain and retain principally by judicious presents and
payments to them out of the revenue, which, as long as he remains Sultan, it is his pri­
vilege to collect and disburse. Its principal source (the custom-house at Muscat) being
easily defensible, he can when once established retain his hold on it with a comparatively
small body of mercenaries obtained by him from such tribes as he thinks he can for the
moment best depend on, in face ot sometime formidable combinations; but with such a
tenure of authority he has but little power to give effect to commands outside Muscat
and Mutrah, and to a still more limited extent in the coast towns whose dilapidated forts
are garrisoned by small bodies of subsidised tribesmen, and governed in a feeble sort of
way by his Walis. For such a Sultan to issue a decree similar to that issued by the Sultan
ioi Zanzibar would be a farce. He would have no power to enforce its provisions outside
the environs of Muscat and Mutrah. At present the stipulations of the treaty of 1873
(concluded by Sir Barile Frere) or solely given effect to by the British Consuls, and
necessarily only by him to the extent of slaves who manage to escape from their masters
>n the interior or coast towns, and gain the asylum of the British Consulate. Under that
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