MR CAVE’S REPORT.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 606, 29 May 1876, Page 4

MR CAVE’S REPORT.

The promise of Mr Cave’s report had the effect of sending up Egyptian Securities ; the appearance of it had the effect of bringing them down. The long-expected papers, though doubtless honest and sincere, are scarcely regarded as satisfactory. The Pall Mall Gazette is very indignant with all those who question the solvency of Ismael Pasha, or the reassuring character of the report, which, according to our contemporary, “ reveals a deplorable state of things in the past, a hopeful state of things in the future, and for the present a thoroughly sound basis of finance.” What, stated in somewhat different terms, Mr Cave's report appears to do is to show that the resources of Egypt admit under proper management of great development, and if this management is forthcoming there will be enough, aad more than enough—always assuming that the Khedive does not continue to contraoi loans at the present ruinous rate of interest —to carry on the work of administration and to pay all creditors. We can only glance at the contents of the Report. In addition to a floating debt of £18,334,961 aad £1,000,000 expenses of the Abyssinian War, the liabilities of the Egyptian Government amount to £29,299,989 upon secured loans. Besides this total of State debt there is a debt of £6,032,620 on the Khedive’s Dana. or private administration, and £3,000,000 on floating d(bt. The entire debt to be dealt with is £77,667.567. The present revenue of Egypt is £10,089,070; but when certain taxes on land wiU have ceased ten years hence, while ceitain others will have become more productive, it will, according to Mr Cave’s estimate, h ive shrunk to £8,473,000. The Khedive’s a ilnculties are due to the “ruinous conditions of loans” raised for public woiks, good in themselves, bui precipitately pressed forward. Egypt Buffers from “ two opposite causes—the ignorance, waste, and dishonesty of the Eas:, and the hasty and ill-considered endeavours to adopt the civilisation of the West.” Thus it seems that all the available portions the revenue have been pledged—some of them several times over. tur Cave’s proposal fur reform, shortly summarised, came to this. Theloans of 1868 am' 1873, as well as of the bonds of the floating debt, are to be brought up for consolid :tion, the effect of which would be to liberate and to render available as securities for a loan that might be raised at a moderate rate of interest those portions of the revenue that are now pledged. Mr Cave thir- ~a that it is indispensable for this that the Khedive should place at the head of a Control Department some trustworthy and experienced person to receive money from the tat-colk-c:ore, to prevent frauds on the Exchequer, and to repress extortion from the Fellaheen. Without the consent of this officer the Khedive is not to engage in new loans. If these steps arc taken, and the necessary guarantees for their being fully carried out are given, Mr Cave sees no reason why the country should not quickly recover. It will be seen that this anticipation implies an earnest desire on the part of the Khedive to check existing abuses, and, consequently, to curtail some indulgences and forego some ambitions. The continued fall of Egyptian stock cannot be regarded as evidence of a conviction that Ismael Pasha will display the requisite virtues.