It took rather less than an hour, yesterday, for Her Majesty’s warships to reduce the Palace at Zanzibar to ashes and the false SULTAN to subjection. The affair was very briskly carried out, and obviously with a relish. An antiquated steamer, which had belonged to the dead Monarch, was indiscreet enough to open fire upon the British ships, and so she was promptly sent to the bottom of the harbour. The fighting on land was more serious, but there was only one casualty on our side, and perfect order, we may feel sure, will be restored in a day or two. The only incident which seems to promise complications is that the PRETENDER fled for protection to the German Consul, who let him take refuge in his house. What he is doing there nobody knows, but there can be no question about our complete rights over Zanzibar. The new Prince who has been established on the throne is reported to be friendly to Great Britain, but it really does not matter very much if he is friendly or not friendly. What many British subjects in Zanzibar hoped for was that this opportunity would be taken to abolish the Sultanate altogether, and convert Zanzibar into a Crown Colony. For the real meaning of the Sovereignty is that the Mohammedan law will be respected, and that means slavery. It is idle, however, to say that by a stroke of the pen we could get rid of the maintenance of slavery. Ot course, the slave trade is illegal in Zanzibar, but domestic slavery remains, and some of the plantations are cultivated by slaves. The conversion of the country into a Crown Colony would mean the abolition of slavery in all its forms, for that is a rule to which Great Britain allows no exceptions. But successive Governments have hesitated to so revolutionise the social conditions of Zanzibar. It would mean the complete disorganisation of industry, and the necessity to grant great subsidies to the Zanzibaris for the loss of the slaves. As a matter of fact, the slaves are not in a condition to benefit by universal emancipation. They would have no land to live upon, we should have to purchase land for them. Lord ROSEBERY’s Government refused the request of the philanthropists in this direction, and Lord SALISBURY continues his policy. The Zanzibaris will go on living nominally under native rule. It is doubtless unpleasant to reflect that this is a tacit recognition of slavery by Great Britain, but it is slavery of a kind which does not seem to produce special hardships. And the dominant race are the Arabs, who are born rulers, and would not be degraded from their position without a struggle. If Zanzibar were made a Crown Colony we should have to govern the island in defiance of the Arabs instead of through them. The negroes have not learned to be free, and their form of servitude is bound with the Government of Zanzibar.
Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds, England, August 28, 1896
