igo6] The Akabah Quarrel 139 



" 29th April, 1900. 



"Dear Redmond. — Would it not be possible to adjourn the House 

 so as to get explanations from the Government about this quarrel with 

 the Sultan? Up to the present Grey has refused papers, and every- 

 body is in the dark about it. Then the next step will be to send an 

 ultimatum — and then they will say it is too late and that the honour 

 of England is engaged. 



" As far as I can make the matter out, the Egyptian frontier as 

 granted in 1841 to Mohammed Ali was drawn in a straight line from 

 Suez to El Arish on the Mediterranean, El Arish being a village 

 situated near the mouth of a small river or rather stream which was 

 the ancient boundary between Egypt and Palestine, and is mentioned 

 as such under the name of the ' River of Egypt ' in the Bible. I find 

 that in 1840 the boundary of the Pashalik of Acre contiguous to that 

 of Egypt was officially drawn at that time from Suez to El Arish. 

 In the firman granted to Mohammed Ali in the following year the 

 passage occurs : ' I have reintegrated you in the Government of Egypt 

 comprised within the limits drawn on the map which has been sent 

 you.' I think this map should be asked for, as I am convinced that it 

 would show the boundary to be the Suez to El Arish line. 



" All the subsequent ' firmans of investiture ' granted to the Viceroys 

 of Egypt have followed much the same lines, the exact frontier not 

 being specified. This was the case with Ishmail Pasha's firman in 

 1866, and Tewfik's firman in 1879, and, I believe, Abbas' in 1892, 

 though I have not got a copy of it. 



" The origin of the claim in the Sinai Peninsula raised now for Egypt 

 is to be found in a permission given to Mohammed Ali, who, it will 

 be remembered, reconquered for the Sultan the province of Hejaz in 

 Arabia, with the holy cities Medina and Mecca, that he should garrison 

 certain stations on the pilgrim road from Egypt. These were Nakhl 

 [a fort half way between Suez and Akabah] , Akabah, Moelhe, and Wej, 

 the last two being small ports on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. 

 All these were considered to be in Arabia, and are marked as such on 

 European maps of as late date as after the opening of the Suez Canal 

 in 1869, though the forts remained in the occupation of the Egyptian 

 Government till 1892. Akabah, Moelhe, and Wej were then, if I re- 

 member rightly, abandoned by Egypt, the pilgrimage no longer being 

 made by land, the only post on the pilgrim road still occupied with a 

 small garrison of perhaps a dozen men being Nakhl. In 1892, though 

 nothing definite was said about the boundary in the firman, a letter 

 was written by the then Grand Vizier (I believe it has been published 

 but I have not a copy of it) saying that the boundary of Egyptian 

 administration would be a line drawn from El Arish to Akabah, the 

 Egyptian Government holding the former, the Ottoman Government 



