EGYPT. 



233 



order to finish the reforms in the interior of 

 the country. 



Riaz Pasha, the Premier, spoke at a dinner 

 given him at Cairo in reference to the work 

 that had been accomplished in reform as a 

 good beginning, but declared that more re- 

 mained to be done before the object sought 

 could be attained than it was in the power of 

 the presant generation of officers to perform. 

 He said: "We have before us a task which 

 will tax the energies, and which needs the 

 hearty cooperation of all that is best and most 

 honest among us. Our force lies in our union. 

 We have to build up an organization which 

 shall be strong because based on principles of 

 justice. We have to introduce institutions 

 which shall resist, so far as may be, the 

 shocks and vicissitudes of time. By this 

 means only can we assure the future ; but the 

 work, to be of use, must rest, not on hasty 

 and partial reform, but on real and solid foun- 

 dations." 



In the budget for 1880, published in Janu- 

 ary, the receipts were estimated at 8,561,622. 

 The expenses were estimated : for administra- 

 tion, pensions, civil list, etc., 3,491,544; 

 tributes, 681,488; reserve fund, 150,000; 

 leaving a balance available for the public debt 

 of 4,238,592. The Comptrollers proposed to 

 apply this balance contingently upon the ap- 

 proval of the Council of Ministers, in round 

 numbers, as follows: to the unified loan, in- 

 cluding the conversion of the short loans, 

 2,500,000 ; to the privileged loan, 834,009 ; 

 to the Suez Canal, 200,000; to the Daira 

 Khassa, 35,000; to interest on the floating 

 debt, 200,000; balance, 419,592, available 

 for the creditors. 



The report of the caisse of the public debt 

 stated that the capital of the unified public 

 debt amounted on the 31st of December, 1879, 

 to 56,085,000, that of the railway preference 

 stock to 16,880,000, and that of the stocks of 

 1864, 1865, and 1867 to 300,000, 316,000, 

 and 653,000 respectively. 



The report of the English and French Comp- 

 trollers-General, containing their definitive 

 scheme for the settlement of the financial sit- 

 uation of the country, was presented to the 

 Khedive in January. It proposed to fix the 

 interest on the unified debt at four per cent. : 

 in case the revenue from the provinces set 

 apart for the service of the debt should be in- 

 sufficient to pay four per cent, the deficiency 

 should be made up out of the general revenue ; 

 if, on the other hand, the taxes assigned should 

 yield more than four per cent., the surplus 

 should be paid to the holders of the unified 

 debt up to a maximum of five per cent., and 

 any further surplus above that amount should 

 oe applied to half-yearly purchases of stock in 

 the open market. It provided also that any 

 surplus of general revenue, if a surplus should 

 accrue, should be applied, one half to the ad- 

 ministration, the other half to the service of 

 the debt. The Comptrollers considered this 



to be a fair arrangement, and believed that the 

 higher rate of interest would be resumed be- 

 fore long, but entertained no hope of ever be- 

 ing able to pay the sums owing on account of 

 former coupons or the suspended half-yearly 

 purchases of stock in the open market. Other 

 provisions of the report were : that the unified 

 stock held by the Paris syndicate should be 

 exchanged for a special stock redeemable in a 

 certain number of years; that the Moukabalah 

 tax should be abolished, and in compensation 

 for the rapid amortization of the short loans 

 levied upon it, those loans should be exchanged 

 at the price of eighty per cent, against bonds 

 of the unified debt at their current market 

 value ; that the rate of interest on the railway 

 preference stock should remain undisturbed ; 

 and that the tribute to the Porte should be a 

 first charge upon the revenue. The Comp- 

 trollers expressed confidence in the sincerity 

 and rectitude of the Khedive, and averred that 

 they had reason to believe that, if the present 

 state of progress continued, affairs would be- 

 fore long return to their normal condition. 

 Past experience forbade an optimist view of 

 the future, but never before had the hope of a 

 final arrangement of the financial situation of 

 Egypt been so well founded. That these an- 

 ticipations might be realized, a distinct line of 

 demarkation must be drawn at December 31, 

 1879, and all prior debts must be settled by 

 liquidation, the terms of which would be em- 

 bodied in a law, whose conditions shall be 

 binding on all concerned, so that the Egyptian 

 Government can never be sued for claims ac- 

 crued before 1880. Such a law would be sub- 

 mitted to the European powers, and pending 

 their decision would be applied to those ac- 

 cepting it. The Khedive accepted the report 

 in a letter in which he thanked the Comptrol- 

 lers for preparing it, and declared that com- 

 plete harmony existed between himself and 

 his Ministers, who accepted the report with 

 the same degree of responsibility as himself. 

 The Khedive had already signed decrees abol- 

 ishing the Moukabalah tax as well as certain 

 other taxes amounting to about six hundred 

 thousand Egyptian pounds, which had been 

 declared by the committee of inquiry to be of 

 a vexatious and unproductive chnracter. Some 

 of the holders of the unified debt protested 

 against the proposal in the report of the 

 Comptrollers-General with regard to the non- 

 payment of the arrears of the half-yearly cou- 

 pons of that debt, and were answered that as 

 the report contained only a provisional scheme 

 drawn up for the purpose of affording the 

 creditors an opportunity of making the Egyp- 

 tian Government acquainted with their views 

 before a definitive settlement was effected, the 

 discussion of the subject by the caisse of the 

 public debt must be deferred until the decree 

 of liquidation had been submitted to it, when 

 it would state what sacrifices it considered ne- 

 cessary, without, however, interfering with 

 the personal action of the creditors, should 



