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CORRESPONDENCE respecting the Status of Slavery in East Africa and the Islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.1898, 1899.

No. 1.-Sir A. Hardinge to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received July 11.)

Extract.)

Zanzibar, June 13, 1898. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch of the 9th ultimo, respecting Seyyid Khalifa's engagement that all children born in his dominions after the 1st January, 1890, abould be free.* I was inaccurate in my reference to this engagement amy despatch of the 9th February, which was written from Mom. asa, where I was unable to refer to previous papers, for there was ot even an unpublished Decree on the subject, but merely an Article in a Treaty, which the Sultan stipulated should be kept secret, at least so far as his own subjects were concerned, until he was in a position to make it public. Only three copies of this Treaty, or rather two originals and one copy, are in existence-one, the English original, which was sent home to your Lordship; one, the Arabic original, which is in the archives of Her Majesty's Agency; and one in English, a mere copy of the English original, which is bound up in the volumes of our Confidential correspondence. As a consequence, the two Sultans who succeeded Seyyid Khalifa remained in ignorance of the engagement; and the present Sultan was, I believe, the first to learn of its existence in the course of the discussions which took place in connection with the last abolition Decree.

The Native Courts at Mombasa approached the question of this Agreement, as I imagine they were bound to do, in a purely legal spirit, looking at it as a matter of law alone, without reference to considerations of expediency. They dealt with it precisely as they would have dealt with an engagement by Seyyid Khalifa about the sale of liquors, or about a concession to a foreign merchant, and so dealing they found that there was before them no legal evidence, or any evidence at all except report, of the existence of the Agreement, much less of its embodiment in any legal instrument which could make it binding upon the subjects of the Sultan. By the laws and customs of Zanzibar an order of the Sultan must be formally issued in a particular way (like an "Order in Council" with us) before its provisions can be appealed to or enforced, for the Sultan, though an absolute Prince, is not an utterly irresponsible despot, but is, I

Article III of Agreement of September 13, 1889. See Vol. LXXXI, Page 1291.

believe, bound, both by usage and the Sheria of Islam, to observe making his enactments certain regular and recognized legal form and as a matter of principle the doctrine that a law cannot be he to be binding before publication is, I think, pretty generally receiv both in Christian and Mahommedan States. From a strictly leg point of view, therefore (and Mr. Cracknall thinks also from that "equity"), the Courts could not take away rights secured by la and by earlier and later Decrees (for Seyyid Ali's Decree, on whi the present rights of slave-owners rest, confirms all decrees a ordinances made by his predecessors, but says nothing of Treaties on the strength of a Treaty stipulation of uncertain existence a wording, and which, moreover, even if its existence could have be proved, was not embodied as required by the local law, in any decr ordinance, or regulation.

I fully understand, however, that, whatever may be the views jurists, Her Majesty's Government, in their natural anxiety to pr mote the disappearance of slavery, should regard the question fro the broader standpoint of policy and utility; and it was for th reason that I thought it right to call your Lordship's attention. the decision of the judicial authorities. Now that I know yo opinion on the subject, it will be quite easy for me to give effect to without encroaching upon the province of Tribunals.

The simplest way of doing this would appear to be that I shou issue a short notification in English and Arabic, which would sent to the various authorities concerned, but which, as affecti only natives and not British subjects, need not contain any referen to "The East Africa Order in Council."

The notification would run somewhat as follows:

"Whereas His late Highness Seyyid Khalifa-bin-Saïd agreed the 13th September, 1889, with Her Majesty's then Agent a Consul-General at Zanzibar, that all persons born in his dominio after the 1st January, 1890, should be free;

"And whereas some doubt has arisen, owing to the non-promu gation of this Agreement in His Highness' mainland dominion whether it is valid and operative in them:

"It is hereby declared by Her Majesty's Commissioner a Consul-General for the East Africa Protectorate, under authori from Her Majesty's Government, that the said Agreement is val and operative in the aforesaid mainland dominions of His Highne the Sultan of Zanzibar, and that no person born subsequent to t 1st January, 1890, can be legally claimed as a slave within them."

I should mention that no appeal has been, or is likely to b instituted from the decisions of the two Mombasa Courts. It wi not in fact raised by the parties, but by Mr. Craufurd himself, wh knowing of the Agreement by report, was in doubt whether, notwith

standing the numerous precedents to the contrary, the Court could Lot, or ought not, to enforce it.

As regards Zanzibar, I have informed the Sultan's Government, in the note of which I have the honour to inclose a copy, that no compensation should, until further notice, be paid in respect af children born since the 1st January, 1890. The instances in which it has been paid up to the present are, Mr. Alexander informs se, very few.

Turning next, as directed by your Lordship, to the interests of the children as affected by the Agreement, I do not believe that its enforcement will be attended by any widespread or serious injury to hem; and, in any case, the danger of this happening is likely to minish every year as the number of parents, and therefore of ldren, born as slaves, decreases both here and on the mainland by he operation of the existing laws, and as the children themselves, any of whom are over 8 years old, become more and more able to pport themselves. The poorer slave-owners, who count every any they possess, and can ill afford to fill a number of young Boaths without prospect of return, may, in many cases, if they ealize the meaning of the measure, turn these children, both here and on the mainland, out of doors; and in the case of the little girls, the majority of those so turned out will probably become prostitutes at a very early age, though many may be rescued by the Missions in districts where the latter have stations. But the althier Arabs, whose religion enjoins on them, and who practice the whole in a high degree, the virtues of charity and humanity to their dependents, would, I believe, think it dishonourable to cast at any helpless young children whom, whatever their status by our are, they would regard as still their slaves in the eyes of God, and possessing on that account a moral claim on them. To a man o is well off and given to Eastern hospitality, the supplying of the imple wants of native Africans is not a very serious expense; two or hree pairs of small black hands, more or less, in the rice dish will et ruin him, and I do not think, if the notification suggested above issued, that its effect will for some time be widely felt, for the oung slaves themselves will not move in the matter unless we empel them, which your Lordship would, I think, scarcely wish us to do.

The chief danger these children have to fear from the enforcement the Agreement lies in cases where their master dies, leaving several ons and daughters, and they are claimed before the Courts (on the ainland) by his various legal heirs. If the Courts treat the Agreeent as a valid Decree, they must in such case face its consequences ad free the children, who will thus become masterless and home, until, tempted by hunger to theft, they will find a new home

and begin a new and less pleasant form of servitude within the wall of the Protectorate gaol. The Missions, as I have stated above, ma help to mitigate the evil, and the Courts might be asked to sen homeless freed children to them. The best arrangement would, think, be to apprentice them, after freeing them, for a term of year or until they could support themselves, to their masters, where th latter were trustworthy and honourable; but I make this suggestio with some diffidence, in view of the feeling expressed in Englan against apprenticeship, and its rejection by your Lordship in you instruction to me of February 1897. I would not, indeed, hav ventured to submit it at all but for the important difference betwee the apprenticeship in individual cases of young homeless childre (which exists in England itself), and the institution of a gener system of apprenticeship for all slaves, young and old, as a sort ‹ universal transition or middle term between servitude and absolut freedom which is what I understood you more especially to condemi The future of the freed girl children is, moreover, for obvious reason a graver problem than that of the boys.

Your Lordship will be able to judge from the foregoing obse vations of some of the difficulties in the way of combining a stri enforcement of Seyyid Khalifa's engagement with the material an moral interests of the slave children. It is easy to exaggerate thes difficulties, and when all has been said, a little homeless negro wa in East Africa is not as badly off as a white child similarly situate in Europe; but that some degree of suffering will be occasioned i many cases to these children is, I fear, inevitable, and though may be palliated, and in particular instances entirely remedied, cannot suggest any general panacea. It is one of the numerou hardships which a radical and rapid social change, such as tha through which these countries are being forced, must inflict on man classes and individuals.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

ARTHUR H. HARDINGI

P.S.-June 17th. I have the honour to inclose herewith a cop. of Mr. Alexander's reply to my note to him of the 12th instant whic has just been received by me.

(Extract.)

(Inclosure 1.)-Sir A. Hardinge to Mr. Alexander.

A. H. H

Zanzibar, June 12, 1898 You are aware that on the 13th September, 1889, His Highnes: Seyyid Khalifa-bin-Saïd signed an Agreement with Her Majesty': Agent and Consul-General, which provided amongst other things that all children born in his dominions after January 1890 should be free This Agreement was reported to Her Majesty's Government, and is

w generally known to all persons in Great Britain who are intested in the affairs of Zanzibar.

The Article respecting children born after 1890 was, however, wing to the unwillingness of the Sultan to offend his subjects, never published or issued in any legal form here, and has therefore not Witherto been deemed legally valid in accordance with the laws and metoms of Zanzibar. The Courts in the mainland dominions of His Highness, both in the time of the Imperial British East Africa Comany and since, have also apparently always held themselves bound ignore it until it was embodied in legal form, and my attention aring recently been called to a case in which they did so, I emed it my duty to report their action to Her Majesty's Secretary f State. In doing so I mentioned to his Lordship that the Zanzibar Government were giving compensation in respect of children born ce 1890, on the ground, which they had thought not contested, hat these children were "legally" held, inasmuch as no prohibition hold them had been embodied in any instrument which, acarding to the laws of Zanzibar, was binding on His Highness' ubjects.

I have now received a despatch from the Marquess of Salisbury, which he informs me that this view cannot be admitted by Her Majesty's Government, and that no compensation should be paid for chandren born after the 1st January, 1890.

4. Alexander, Esq.

ARTHUR A. HARDINGE.

(Inclosure 2.)-Mr. Alexander to Sir A. Hardinge.

Zanzibar, June 17, 1898.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your despatch f the 12th instant with reference to an Agreement signed on De 13th May, 1889, between Seyyid Khalifa-bin-Saïd and Her Majesty's Agent.

I note that the Marquess of Salisbury has informed you that Her ajesty's Government cannot admit the view that has been hitherto ten of the Agreement by the Courts in the mainland, and more ly by the Courts of His Highness' Government here in awarding ensation in respect of children born since 1890. I shall theredo as you request, namely, give no further compensation to of children born since 1890, and direct the Courts, here and deraba, not to award compensation in similar cases.

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