EGYPT. 



229 



, 



Austrian; 135, of 222,706 tons, were Italian; 1,399, 

 of 175,938 tons, were Turkish; 84, of 166,425 tons, 

 were Russian; 176, of 80,511 tons, were Greek; 

 35, of 58,459 tons, were German; 26, of 49,436 

 tons, were Swedish and Norwegian; and 64, of 

 58,788 tons, were of other nationalities. The 

 total number cleared was 2,784, of 2,364,672 tons, 

 of which 674, of 1,019,908 tons, were British; 110, 

 of 292,076 tons, were French; 129, of 251,587 tons, 

 were Austrian; 136, of 223,134 tons, were Italian; 

 1,364, of 173,148 tons, were Turkish; 83, of 163,- 

 769 tons, were Russian; 169, of 78,024 tons, were 

 Greek; 35, of 58,427 tons, were German; 22, of 

 42,038 tons, were Swedish and Norwegian; and 

 62, of 62,561 tons, were of other nationalities. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 Government railroads on Jan. 1, 1902, had a 

 length of 1,393 miles, and private companies 

 owned 780 miles of agricultural railroads. Of 

 the state railroads 958 miles were in the delta 

 and 435 miles in Upper Egypt. The number of 

 passengers carried on the state railroads during 

 1900 was 12,428,300; tons of freight, 2,950,000; 

 gross receipts, E. 2,158,877 ; working expenses, 

 E. 971,495, being 45 per cent, of the receipts; 

 net earnings, E. 1,187,382. 



The number of letters and postal cards handled 

 by the Egyptian post-office in 1900 was 13,759,000 

 in the internal and 2,920,000 in the international 

 service; newspapers, etc., 8,061,000 internal and 

 1,280,000 international; parcels, 197,000 internal 

 and 90,000 international ; post-office orders 628,- 

 500, value E. 17,191,000. 



The telegraphs owned and operated by the 

 Egyptian Government have a total length of 

 2,365 miles, with 9,934 miles of wire. The number 

 of inland telegrams sent in 1901 was 4,250,571. 



Internal Affairs. Egypt under British con- 

 trol is making a slow but appreciable advance in 

 the direction of civilized government. The fiscal 

 system is on a sound basis. In the general ad- 

 ministration no radical change is contemplated. 

 The institution of slavery is practically extinct. 

 The corvee has been abolished in its oppressive 

 features. The courbash is no longer employed as 

 an instrument of government. The judicial sys- 

 tem and the organization of the police admit of 

 further improvement, yet already law and order 

 prevail. New prisons and reformatories have 

 been built, and the treatment of prisoners is in 

 conformity with the principles generally adopted 

 in Europe. Hospitals have been established, 

 where the sick receive proper care. The lunatic 

 is^no longer treated as a wild beast. Education 

 in all its branches has received a great impulse. 

 The army is well organized and efficient, and all 

 the abuses of the old recruiting system have been 

 swept away. The principal irrigation works have 

 been completed. Means of locomotion by rail 

 and road have been improved and extended. The 

 Government has taken steps to enable the fella- 

 hin to shake themselves free from the grip of 

 the money-lenders. The result of the experiment, 

 which has been going on since 1899, indicates 

 that the peasants will not use the advantages of- 

 fered them to incur fresh loans. The usurers 

 charge from 40 to 100 per cent, per annum on 

 their loans. In 1902 an agricultural bank was 

 founded with a capital of 2,500,000, which 

 makes advances to fellahin on easy terms. The 

 Government guarantees the repayment of the ad- 

 vances and interest on the capital. Occasional 

 cases of slave-dealing and kidnaping come before 

 the courts. In 1902 a provincial governor was 

 retired and an influential pasha and several police 

 officers were imprisoned for applying torture to 

 extract a confession from cattle-thieves who had 



robbed the Khedive. The plague and the cholera 

 appeared in Egypt in 1901 and controlled in 1902. 

 Officials found difficulty in dealing with the 

 plague, owing to the habits and prejudices of the 

 people. 



The Egyptian Soudan. The Mahdi and the 

 Khalifa having ruled the Soudan for sixteen 

 years, the latter was defeated by an Anglo-Egyp- 

 tian army on Sept. 2, 1898, and on Jan. 19, 1899, 

 a convention was signed at Cairo by representa- 

 tives of the British and the Egyptian govern- 

 ments in accordance with which the territory 

 south of 22 of north latitude is administered by 

 a governor-general appointed by the Khedive 

 with the approval of the British Government ; the 

 Egyptian and British flags are used together; 

 laws are made by proclamation; no duties can be 

 levied on imports from Egypt, and duties on goods 

 from other countries shall not exceed those levied 

 by Egypt; the importation or exportation of 

 slaves is prohibited, and special attention is paid 

 to the provisions of the Brussels act of 1890 regu- 

 lating the importation and exportation of fire- 

 arms and ammunition and of spirits. 



The Soudan is divided into the provinces of 

 Khartoum, Dongola, Berber, Kassala, Senaar, 

 and Kordofan and the districts of Wady Haifa, 

 Suakin, and Fashoda, over each of which is a 

 Mudir, or military governor. The estimated reve- 

 nue of 1901 was E. 224,374, and the expendi- 

 ture was estimated at E. 614.095, leaving a 

 deficit of E. 389,721 to be paid out of the Egyp- 

 tian treasury. The total area of the Egyptian 

 Soudan, extending southward to Albert Nyanza 

 and east and west from the Red Sea to Wadai, 

 is estimated at 950,000 square miles, with a popu- 

 lation which was formerly estimated at 10.000,- 

 000, but has declined under the rule of the Derv- 

 ishes. The frontier between the Italian colony of 

 Erythria and the Soudan has been delimited by 

 a joint commission. The port and district of 

 Massowa, which before the Mahdist revolt were 

 occupied by Egypt, now belong to Italy; Zeila 

 and Berbera belong to Great Britain; and Harar 

 belongs to Abyssinia. The Soudan was placed 

 by the British under an embargo during the 

 Mahdist regime, and all trade ceased excepting a 

 surreptitious trade in slaves. It was again de- 

 clared open for traffic on Dec. 12, 1899; but the 

 trade in gum arabic, ostrich feathers, ivory, gold 

 dust, and skins has not returned. Ebony, rub- 

 ber, gum, and other valuable forest products can 

 be obtained on the White Nile and the rich lands 

 on the Blue Nile are adapted to grow wheat as 

 well as sesame, millet, dhurra, and pulse, which 

 are now cultivated. In the northern part of the 

 country regular government has been restored 

 arid industries have in some measure been re- 

 vived. Khartoum, which has again been made 

 the capital, instead of the neighboring Mahdist 

 city of Omdurman, is connected with Cairo by 

 the Anglo-Egyptian military railroad and by a 

 telegraph-line. The Governor-General of the Sou- 

 dan is the Sirdar, Sir Reginald Wingate. who has 

 Col. F. J. Nason for his civil secretary and Sir 

 Rudolf von Slatin for inspector-general. The ac- 

 cumulation of swamp vegetation called the sudd, 

 which renders the Nile and its tributaries im- 

 passable, has been removed. The Nile is open the 

 entire year from Khartoum to Gondokoro, the 

 northern post of the Uganda Protectorate, which 

 is 15 miles from Mohgalla, the southernmost post 

 of the Egyptian Soudan. Lado and Kiro are held 

 by a Belgian force, and from those stations offi- 

 cers of the Congo State administer the enchirc on 

 the Nile that was leased to the Congo Govern- 

 ment. The Egyptian Soudan has been generally 



