MR. GILPINsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If his attention has been called to official statements that an extensive Slave Trade is carried on from the dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar to ports of Madagascar, the Islands between it and the Portuguese provinces of Mozambique, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf; and, whether any Treaty exists between the British Government and the Sultan of Zanzibar similar to that which has been entered into between 1107 the British Government and the Imaum of Muscat, which prohibits the exportation of slaves from his dominions; and, if not, whether the Sultan, as a vassal of the Imaum, is not bound by the Treaty aforesaid?
LORD STANLEYSir, Her Majesty's Government are aware that a considerable traffic in slaves exists between Zanzibar and the ports of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. They are not aware, and do not believe, that any considerable traffic of that kind exists between Zanzibar and Madagascar or the islands between it and the mainland. There is now no Imaum of Muscat. On the death of the late Imaum his territories were divided between his two sons, one of whom bears the title of the Sultan of Muscat, the other of Sultan of Zanzibar. The treaties contracted with the late Imaum are binding on both these potentates.