IOR/R/15/1/229

Correspondence in the first part of the volume relates to specific cases of the kidnapping of boys from Baluchistan/India to the Trucial Coast, and the efforts of the Political Resident and Political Agents to locate, retrieve and repatriate them. Reference is made to a court case in Karachi, in which witness testimonies reveal the extent of the slave trade across the Gulf of Oman (folios 107-108), and the numbers of slaves on the Trucial Coast, with up to 1,500 claimed to be in Dubai.

The volume broadens in scope, reflecting the British Government’s concerns about the extent of the slave trade from Persia/Baluchistan. There are detailed reports made in 1929 on the extent and nature of slavery in the Gulf region, specifically in Kuwait (folios 198-204, 215-216), Qatar (folios 220-223), the Trucial States (folios 208-209), and Muscat (folios 242-260). The last of these reports is compiled by Bertram Thomas, then Wazir [Finance Minister] for the State of Muscat, and focuses on the slave trade in the Al-Batinah region of Oman. The report includes a detailed account of slavery and the pearl diving industry, maps of slave trade routes across the Gulf of Oman and on the Al-Batinah coast, and the names of known slave dealers in the region.