PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 457 



balance of E. 75,000 will be lent on mortgage, the loans being 

 repayable in five yearly instalments. 



The popularity of the measures recently taken in the Belbeis 

 district is sufficiently shown by the numerous requests which have 

 been received by the Bank from persons residing in districts which 

 have so far not been comprised within the sphere of operations. 



I must, however, repeat the warning which I have given on 

 previous occasions when dealing with this subject. The project is 

 still in an experimental stage. Its ultimate success, considered in 

 the light of a possible solution of a very important and difficult 

 economic problem, depends on whether the majority of the cultivating 

 classes, having once been relieved from any very onerous debts 

 which they may have contracted, will or will not use the comparative 

 financial freedom thus acquired to plunge again into operations from 

 which it will be extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, to 

 extricate them. 



It would be premature at present to express any confident opinion 

 on this point. Such little evidence as is forthcoming, however, 

 rather points to the conclusion that it is erroneous to suppose that the 

 Egyptian fellah will almost invariably incur debt up to the maximum 

 amount of his credit. I do not doubt that a certain number of 

 cultivators, after they have commuted debt on which they are perhaps 

 paying interest at the rate of 40 per cent., or even more, into one on 

 which they will pay 10 per cent., will use the margin of income thus 

 rendered available in order to contract further debt ; but I contend 

 that the present scheme may be considered a success if the number of 

 individuals who adopt this ruinous procedure constitute the exceptions 

 rather than the rule. 



Much, indeed, has frequently been written and said about the 

 inveterate improvidence of the fellaheen population ; much also on 

 the impossibility of saving any one, by legislative or administrative 

 measures, from the consequences of his own folly. I am not prepared 

 to deny that there is much truth in the objections which, on these 

 general grounds, have been occasionally urged against the measures 

 now^Linder discussion. The other side of the question is that, until 

 of recent years, the system of government prevalent in Egypt was 

 certainly not of a nature to encourage thrift. Time will assuredly be 

 required to wean the Egyptian population from habits acquired during 

 the long period when but little respect was shown for the rights of 

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