REFORM IN EGYPT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1789, 30 June 1913, Page 7

REFORM IN EGYPT.

«— LORD CROMER'S ADVICE. By .Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. June 28, 5.5 p.m.) London, June 28. Lord Cromer, formerly British Agent in Egypt, in on articlo in the "Nineteenth Century," advocates the abolition of the capitulations in Egypt. He considers the evils of the existing system will only disappear when Great Britain has requested the Powers to invest her with legislative power to create a Chamber to onnct laws to which Europeans will be amenable. EUROPEANS ABOVE THE LAW. THE CAPITULATIONS AND THEIR ABUSE. The capitulations are those treaties anc concessions of the early Sultans of Tur key, which sccure to foreigners residim in Turkish territory the rights of exterri tonality. These immunities date as fai back as 1150, and were first granted t< England in 1879. "The majority of th< capitulations were granted in the six teenth and seventeenth centuries, when th< Christian was regarded by tho Moslem ai a man of inferior class, who . . . ooult be regarded only as a trader and inferior.' "These Concession.? havo now frown, ii the course of time, into privileges, oi which the European in the Sultan's dorain ions ba6o3 a claim to be regarded as t member of a favoured class. The capitu latious constitute an iuvperium in imperio In these days tho most important of th< privileges granted by the capitulation; aro those of immunity from taxation, ex copt customs duties and land tax, of In violability of domicile, and of exeinptioi from the jurisdiction of the local Courts In Egypt the privileges granted by caoitu lations have received a wido and abusivi extension, and they havo been not th< least of the difficulties that stand in thi way of British reformers in that coun try. Every European in Egypt claims ab solute exemption from the Native Tribun als. In 1876 tho Mixed Tribunals super seded the old Consular Tribunals in civi cases only. The mixed Courts havo n< criminal jurisdiction. Criminal ju,Tisdic tion over Europeans is exercised by tl)< Consular Court of tho Power to whicl tho defendant is subject. Except in i few instances, the Egyptian. police canno' enter tho houso of a foreigner without th< presence of a Consular delegate. Proposal! for the modification of the capitulation! havo been put forward by Lord Cromer ir his annual reports on tho finances, admin istration, and condition of Egypt and tin Soudan.