§ Major Lyonsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will inquire info the case of a Baluchi woman and child who were amongst those exposed for sale in the slave market in Mecca: and whether he will bring all possible pressure to bear on the appropriate authorities in Mecca to have the market closed and to ensure that in future no British subject, African or Indian, of either sex is sold as a slave there?
§ Mr. EdenI have caused inquiries to be made of the Saudi Arabian Government and I am assured that no British protected person or child has been sold as a slave in Mecca. As regards the general question, His Majesty's Government have made every possible effort to suppress the slave traffic in the Persian Gulf which before this war had greatly diminished. But owing to disturbed conditions on the South Persian coast in the last two years there has unfortunately been a slight recrudescence of the smuggling of slaves to the Arabian coast. In the autumn of 1942 I therefore invited the co-operation of the Saudi Arabian Government in putting a stop to this traffic. I was assured that they would take all possible steps to prevent the smuggling of slaves from overseas into 255W their territory, which was contrary not only to Islamic law but also to the laws passed by the Saudi Arabian Government.