Mahatma v. Sultan

In the little Sultanate of Zanzibar off the east coast of Africa there are 180,000 Negroes, 33,000 Arabs, 15,000 Indians, 278 Europeans. The Sultan of Zanzibar, His Highness Seyyid Sir Khalifa bin Harub, gets advice from an English Resident on complicated commercial matters. These, of late, have mainly concerned cloves, of which Zanzibar provides 80% of the world supply; India, in turn, consumes 90% of Zanzibar's output. There are three or four cloves in every betel leaf, and the average Indian citizen chews betel leaves more furiously than the average American chews gum--20 leaves a day.

Most of Zanzibar's 15,000 Indians used to be in the clove business. As they prospered, they became moneylenders to the natives. Then, in the first year of Depression, the price of cloves fell and they foreclosed mortgages, became landowners. The Sultan, partly to protect his subjects, partly to repay the Resident for advice, set up a Clove Growers' Association consisting of the most substantial of Zanzibar's Englishmen. The association's powers were great: It has an export monopoly and it bought at its own price; Indians could go on dealing within the island, but they had to pay $750 to the association for annual licenses.

Naturally enough, the Indian National Merchants' Association of Zanzibar objected. Before long half of its members were out of work. Finally, after four years of railing against the English association, its bearded President Tayyib Ali took the problem to Mahatma Gandhi. Last September, India's National Congress appointed the Mahatma's first lieutenant, rich Vallabhbhai Patel as chairman of a committee to look into a boycott of Zanzibar cloves.

Up in the windows of shops in India went signs: BOYCOTT ZANZIBAR CLOVES. Patriotic Indians complied, but the effect was only to stimulate the business of French plantation owners in Madagascar. And shiploads of Zanzibar cloves got round the boycott by making a detour call at Madagascar on the way to India. So last January, Vallabhbhai Patel decided that till the Sultan of Zanzibar came to his senses, patriotic Indians should eat no cloves at all. For four months National Congress pickets walked mournfully up & down in front of Indian warehouses.

The Sultan of Zanzibar, who likes nothing better than sailing his yacht in the Indian Ocean and going to London now & then, came to his senses some time ago. But the English association was stubborn. Seyyid Sir Khalifa bin Harub knew well that in a few more months his Sultanate would go through the East African equivalent of 776 and he might do little or no yachting. Finally, last week, news came from Zanzibar that an agreement had been signed, Indian pickets could relax. From now on the English association's monopoly will govern only half the trade in Zanzibar cloves.

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