Geographic Notes 



359 



large decrees of the Vth and Vlth 

 dynasties, the oldest example of iron 

 yet known, which is of the Vlth dy- 

 nasty, and in the XVIIIth dynasty a 

 great memorial tablet of the grand- 

 mother of that line, and the remains of 

 a cliff temple of the type of Deir el 

 Bahri. These are but the salient points 

 of a winter's work of much historical 

 interest. The collection will be ex- 

 hibited as usual at University College, 

 Gower street, from July i to 25. 



Unhappily, the growing lawlessness 

 of Egypt, which Lord Cromer noticed 

 in each of his recent reports, has affected # 

 our work, and "a large number of of- 

 fenses, not very serious in themselves, 

 but which cumulatively become serious, 

 have been committed, and but too often 

 have been committed with impunity ' ' 

 (Report, 1902, p. 40). A statue was 

 stolen from my house, and though the 

 footprint of the thief exactly agreed 

 with the very peculiar foot of one of 

 the men who were notoriously accused 

 in the village, and all the links were 

 named by witnesses, yet no conviction 

 could be obtained ; ,£35 are said to 

 have changed hands as bribes over this. 

 Next, my workmen from Quft were 

 subject to a general conspired assault in 

 the market and each robbed of his 

 money at once; but no redress whatever 

 could be obtained. The police officer 

 added to the injur}' by taking away one 

 man who had been beaten to see the 

 doctor, who did nothing but detain him 



till he paid 10s. bribe to be let go. Last 

 year the relations of a man who died of 

 fever were mulcted of £6 by another 

 doctor, and on my complaining the offi- 

 cial inquiry resulted in giving an ac- 

 count which was absurdly false, to my 

 personal knowledge. 



It is impossible that the present ma- 

 chinery can work to elicit the truth. 

 Witnesses are examined by petty offi- 

 cers, who dictate the final statement of 

 evidence at their own will, and the wit- 

 nesses are summoned through their 

 sheikh, who is the first man to be 

 "squared" by the offenders, and 

 "who, they think, will assuredly, 

 sooner or later, endeavor to wreak his 

 vengeance on them" (Report, p. 36). 

 Such a system — dating long before the 

 British occupation — is the most perfect 

 for facilitating bribery and the suppres- 

 sion of truth. This is not the place to 

 discuss the remedies. Happily, Lord 

 Cromer considers that ' 'the points which 

 most require attention are the police, 

 the department of justice, and sanita- 

 tion." I do not. touch on more per- 

 sonal threats to our part}' and being fired 

 at, as I only wish here to refer to the 

 failure of justice. But matters have 

 gone so far that we must look for safety 

 to our own resources rather than to the 

 law, which has in each case proved to 

 us useless. 



I remain your obedient servant, 



W. M. Flinders Petrie. 



University College, June 22, 1903. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE UNITED 

 STATES IN 1903 



THE foreign commerce of the United 

 States in the fiscal year j ust ended 

 is larger than in any preceding year in 

 its history. The total of imports and 

 exports, as shown by the Department 

 of Commerce and Labor through its 



Bureau of Statistics, is, for the year 

 i°03> $2,445,610,417, against $2,310,- 

 937,156 in the year 1900, which was 

 considered the banner year prior to 1 903. 

 Imports are larger than in any preceding 

 year and exports are larger than in any 

 preceding year save in the exceptional 

 year 1901. The imports for the first time 

 crossed the billion-dollar line, the total 



