ANOMALIES IN EGYPT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 19 August 1913, Page 4

ANOMALIES IN EGYPT.

Lord Cromer, formerly British Agent at Cairo, breaks a six years' silence upon the affairs of Egypt since he left it by an important article in the Nineteenth Century and After, .in which he summarises the results of his administration, and urges the abolition of the system known as the "Capitulations," by which foreigners resident in Egypt are not amenable to the ordinary laws of the country. As regards his own period of admjnisI tration, he claims that during his | regime in Egypt, the tension with 'France was substantially modified, bankruptcy was averted, and the finances placed on a sound footing; grievances were remedied by the relief of taxation, and the Soudan was" recovered. But the abolition of the Capitulations has yet to be carried out. It appears that under this sys-. tem a Russian subject was recently arrested by the Egyptian police at the request of the Consular authorities, and handed over to them for deportation to Russia. He points out that this is only one of the many anomalies that, might be indicted in the working of that most perplexing po» litical creation entitled the Egyptian Government and Administration. Lord Cromer states that under the present system no. important law can be made applicable an Englishman, a Frenohhian, or a German without its detailed provisions having received the consent not only of the King of England, the President of the Frehch Republic, and the German Emperor, but also that of the President of the United Statej, the ;King of penmiark, and every other potentate in Europe. Lord Cromer's proposal for ending this undesirable 'state of affairs is this: "The British •Government should request the other Powers of Europe to vest in it'the 'legislative power which each now exercises separately. Simultaneously with this request a legislative chamber should be created in Europe for enacting laws to which Europeans would bo amenable." I