IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 305-323

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 42 of 1856, dated 10 June 1856. The enclosures are dated 19 December 1855-7 June 1856.

The enclosures chiefly comprise despatches from Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident in Aden, to the Government of Bombay, and the latter’s responses, in connection with British attempts to suppress the trade in enslaved persons in the Red and Arabian seas and the Persian Gulf regions. They notably cover and include:

• Coghlan’s frustration over the lack of available vessels to enable him to visit independent ports on the Arabian and African coasts and Turkish [Ottoman] ports in the Red Sea, in particular Shuhr and Maculla [Ash Shihr and Mukalla] which Coghlan suggests should be monitored for boats crossing from Africa; the Government of Bombay’s resolution to press the need for naval resources upon the Secret Committee; and the Court of Directors’ recommendation that for now existing vessels at Aden and Persian Gulf stations should be used
• Coghlan’s suggestion that a vessel of war be stationed at Perim Island in the Straits of Babel Mandel [Bab el Mandeb] commanding the entrance to the Red Sea
• The agreement concluded by Coghlan with Sultan Manassir, the Oulaki [Sulṭān Manāṣir, al-‘Awlaqī tribe], and the latter’s complaints that his neighbours continue the trade and benefit further from his self-interdict
• The issue of the need to obtain a treaty with ‘Arabian chiefs’ on the Gulf coast providing the right of British vessels to demand the liberation of enslaved persons landed ashore, and the assertion of the Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf that Zanzibar traders evade British surveillance by sailing to Oman and following land routes through Mesopotamia and Persia [Iran], and suggestion that a steam vessel be stationed at Mazeera Island [Masirah]
• The question of producing a ‘digest’ of all treaties existing on the subject of slavery and Coghlan’s concern that they are not enforced partly due to obscure terms
• An intelligence report (supplied by a person connected with the firm of Menon Lambert and Co of Mauritius who have contracted with the British Government to carry the mails between Mauritius and Aden) describing the extent of the trade in enslaved persons carried on by Arab and Persian craft from the coast of Africa and Zanzibar to ports on the Red and Arabian seas and the Persian Gulf (ff 314-315).

The principal correspondents are: Coghlan, the Government of Bombay, and the Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire.