§ MR. EASTWICKasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether 971 any vessels carrying slaves have been captured in the Persian Gulf since the 1st of January 1864, as no such captures appear in the Return dated the 13th of June 1870; and, if not, whether that is owing to the suppression of the trade in the Gulf?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDSir, only three slave vessels have been captured by our cruisers in the Persian Gulf since 1864, and those captures were made by Her Majesty's ship Magpie in the month of June last. The fact that so few captures have been made by our cruisers in the Persian Gulf is not, however, owing to the suppression of the traffic there, as a considerable number of slaves are annually landed on the shores of the Gulf, but rather to the circumstance that during the spring and autumn of the year, the periods when it is possible for the slave dhows to run their cargoes, the few cruisers disposable for the suppression of the slave trade are employed either in watching the African coast, whence the slavers start, or in cruising off the Island of Socotra, at a point where nearly all the slavers are compelled to pass on their way to the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf.