Beschreibung
Folio (31 x 20 cm), ff. [81], autograph manuscript on blue paper with blue and black ink, numerous though legible corrections throughout. Standard nineteenth century notebook with marbled boards, a white paper label on front board and red morocco spine. Binding worn, edges rubbed, joints weak. Malcolm was the eldest son of Sir Charles Malcolm (1782-1851), naval officer. He followed in his father's footsteps, serving in the Royal Navy for his entire career, becoming rear Admiral in 1882. After he retired from active service in 1873 he entered the Turkish services as Pasha and was employed as Director General of the Abolition of the Slave trade and Judge of the Slave Courts. The notebook covers the examination at the Sudanese port of Suakin of various people accused of slave trading who Malcolm concluded had evidently 'broken the law of Egypt in exporting slaves for sale' and instructed that they should be kept in prison until 'they may be claimed by the English war ship Wild Swan'; a speech from 1880 which Malcolm most likely delivered in Freiburg where he was then resident with his second wife, Sophie von Brockdorff, describing the region from the Suez Canal to Kismayo in present-day Somalia concentrating on the geography, flora and fauna of the region, particularly its coral reefs (it is here included in both English and German); and a letter to the editor of The Globe, dated 1879, which Malcolm requested be published anonymously on Ethiopian-Egyptian relations which continued to be tense following the 1874 76 conflict and which Malcolm considered 'must sooner or later be decided by an appeal to arms unless the just demands of the Abyssinians be met in a conciliatory spirit a solution which would alike be favorable to Egypt & Abyssinia'. In addition, the volume contains a series of letters, mainly dated 1881, on anti-slavery operations and the British position in the Red Sea based on Malcolm's direct experience, including to such figures as Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alexander Milne (1806 96), Malcolm's former commander and a member of the Royal Commission on the defence of British possessions and commerce abroad; First Lord of the Admiralty Thomas George Baring, Earl of Northbrook (1826 1904); and the Foreign Secretary, Granville Levenson-Gower, Earl Granville (1815 91). Malcolm had been active in the region for a significant period having commanded anti-slavery British naval operations in Zanzibar and the northeastern coast of Africa in 1872 73 and for the Turkish government in the Red Sea in 1878 as well as having held the position in Istanbul between these years of Director General of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and Judge of the Slave Courts. In these letters, based on his extensive experience and understanding of the situation on the ground, Malcolm proffers his advice in light of growing tensions in Egypt, in relations between Turkey and Russia, and in Britain's negotiations with Turkey and Egypt for an anti-slavery convention. From his retirement at Freiburg, he notes that he had left Turkish service grudgingly and states that 'If I can be in any way of service I am ready to serve provided that the position offered is where I can carefully do my duty in carrying out the wishes of HM government'. Ultimately, the negotiations with Turkey were unsuccessful and within a year, in 1882, tensions reached such a height that Britain informally occupied Egypt in what is known as the Veiled Protectorate (1882 1913) (see W. Mulligan, 'British anti-slave trade and anti-slavery policy' in Humanitarian Intervention: A history, eds. B. Simms and D. J. B. Trim, Cambridge, 2011, pp. 268 69). The volume also includes an account and description of a voyage to Iceland and the coast of Greenland in the summer of 1880. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 54987
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