THE CONFERENCE ON EGYPTIAN FINANCE.
WE regret that the Government should have found it necessary to call a Conference upon Egyptian Finance. They are not ready to submit any large or final plan of settle- ment, and it is a pity to summon the supreme International Tribunal for any but the most adequate end. From the point of view of the Cabinet, however, the summons is both intelli- gible and defensible. They insist that the situation in Egypt is only temporary, and that a temporary Egyptian financial difficulty must be met by a temporary and strictly Egyptian expedient, and their logic is undeniable. About the existence of the difficulty nobody raises any question. Under the Law of Liquidation, which is, properly speaking, a Treaty between Egypt and all the Powers of Europe except Russia, one-half the revenues of the country are mortgaged for the payment of interest on the Debt, to supply deficiencies in the proceeds of the Domains, and to keep np a rather heavy Sinking Fund. This provision has been found sufficient, and more than sufficient, the total assignments on Debt account presenting every year considerable surpluses. On the other hand, the remaining half of the revenues devoted to Administration have proved insufficient for their purpose. The Egyptian Govern- ment has had to spend money in the Soudan, to reorganise the Native Army, to pay for a protecting force from England, and to accede to demands for compensation for the losses caused by the rioters of Alexandria. These last claims are, it is believed, monstrous, the foreign Commissioners having favoured their countrymen as against the friendless Treasury of Cairo ; but they are legal, and in the face of the greediness of Europe, it was impossible to resist them, except by force. Tinder
another Treaty, moreover, which grants to the International Tribunals in Egypt remedy by distraint even against Government property—a Treaty without a precedent in diplomacy, and a mere disguise for the exercise of superior force—the Indemnities must be paid without delay, or the public buildings and public stores may be seized and sold by auction. The total liability for Indemnities, Soudan expenditures, and military outlays, in- cluding a million temporarily lent by Messrs. Rothschild, with the written " approval " of the British Government, amounts to £8,000,000, which must be raised at once, or distraint will follow. There are no means of raising that sum. A loan on the security of the Revenue is forbidden by the Liquidation Law, and there is nothing except the Revenue to mortgage. The State Domain, the Private Domain, the Tobacco Monopoly, the Railway Receipts, are all mortgaged up to the hilt, and without new security even a small advance could not be obtained. Under such circumstances, an Asiatic government usually goes to the Jews or the Greeks ; grants anticipatory orders on Revenue for extravagant amounts ; promises 40 per cent. interest, or makes its creditors farmers-general,- that is, gives them a licence to plunder the peasantry without official animadversion. The Egyptian Treasury, however,. can do none of these things, and if it could, the Jew finan- ciers would not accept its offers. Their single object, for which they are working the Continental Press through its Jew managers with wonderful energy and unanimity, is to compel England to guarantee the Debt ; and the more embarrassed the Cairene Treasury becomes, the nearer they feel to that £20,000,000 of extra premium for which, as Mr. Gladstone said, they are hungering with such wolfish avidity.
If the British Government were about either to annex or protect Egypt, it would be easy, of course, to find the eight millions required, and perhaps to baffle the usurers too, who, strong as they are, cannot measure purses with Mr. Childers, or attempt to run down British security ; but the theory is that Egypt is to be evacuated, and there is therefore nothing for it but to modify the Law of Liquidation. If the Bond- holders give up the Sinking Fund, the revenues assigned to the Debt can pay about £400,000 a year more in interest, and the £8,000,000 can be found on the security of that payment. This step, however, can only be taken with the assent of the sig- natory Powers, and therefore the Conference is to be called either in London or in Constantinople. Its business will, it is stated, be strictly limited to finance, and as the British Government is in possession, and is making proposals in themselves reason- able, there can be little doubt that, after the usual amount of discussion, prompted by the French determination to have either power or pelf, those proposals will be accepted, and the Egyptian Treasury, relieved from its immediate burden, will stumble along again quietly for a time. Believing as we do that Providence has seated us, in our own despite and to our own discontent, on the Nile, and that we shall stop there, even if both the front Benches unite to urge evacuation, we dislike this plan of dealing with the Egyptian financial difficulty. There is no finality about it, no certainty that next year or next week the difficulty may not recur in an aggravated form. The Mandi may reach Assouan, or a mob in Alexandria may pillage half a dozen banks, or there may be a strike against taxes such as has occurred in many Asiatic provinces, and then more money must be raised ; and as the Liquidation Law will still be in the way, the Confer- ence must be called again, and the difficulties of the hour will all recur, with the aggravation that there will be no Sinking Fund to throw out to the wolves. This, however, is not an objection to the special action now being considered, but to the whole scheme of policy upon which the British Govern- ment is proceeding. That scheme being accepted, the Conference, in any time of financial trouble, follows almost as a matter of course, and to pick out the Conference for animadversion is almost foolish. To act as the Government is acting, and then guarantee one petty debt, or lend one petty loan, or remit one petty charge, would be merely to swerve from a great policy without provocation or intelligible purpose. We do not believe in the Government policy, holding it to be based on a radical misconception of Asiatic nature as it has been formed by Asiatic conditions and creeds ; but it is a large policy, and it is followed out with a steady consistency which, if we could hope for success, we should heartily admire. Calling the Conference is an incident in that policy, and we quarrel with it no more than we quarrel with Protectionists for any particular tax. If they are right in their theory, one tax justified by it is as defensible as another ; and to fasten on one, yet leave Protection unassailed, would be childish
niggling. When Mr. Gladstone sees that the British must govern Egypt permanently, Egyptian finance will be prosperous, and intermediately the small expedients now discussed secure a little time. Our only regret is that they cannot be adopted without calling upon so very grand and cumbrous an international referee.
Previous page
