THE FINANCIAL AGREEMENT ON EGYPT. T HE Conservatives will not make
much of their threatened resistance to the Financial Agreement on Egypt described by Mr. Childers on Wednesday. We like nothing in it, least of all the mercy shown to the Bondholders ; but from the Government point of view, which has never changed, and has been repeatedly sanctioned by Parliament, the arrangement is sensible enough. It is simply nonsense to say that the International guarantee for the loan of £9,000,000 involves a multiple control. Such control is specially barred by the words of the Agreement, and does not follow out of the guarantee itself. England and France do not govern Turkey because they jointly guaranteed the Defence Loan ; nor do they govern Morocco though they guaranteed the indemnity that his Moorish Majesty was compelled to pay to Spain. Besides, debt dies when it is paid. Should the Government of Great Britain ever take Egypt, it must, for its own convenience, clear-off all Egyptian obligations, and this loan among them, which would in that case cease to exist. The whole meaning of the arrangement is that as England is in Egypt, and as, if some £9,000,000 is not raised, Egypt will be thrown into anarchy by decrees passed by the International Tribunals against the Cairene Treasury, and as the British Government does not wish to be more responsible than it can help, the loan shall be raised in such a way as to allow of a complete settlement by Europe two years hence. Till then we are to do as we please, but after that we must either pay-off the Bondholders or call a new Conference to decide the fate of Egypt. That is what the provision for "Enquiry "really means. The Conservatives may say, if they like, that this is impolitic, and that we should decide the fate of Egypt for ourselves ; but is not that a little absurd ? Even if we annex, we must have a European consent in some way ; and why not in this way as well as any other? Do they want to fight Europe for Egypt ; or, if not, what are they complaining about? Or do they want us to leave Egypt ? If so, why do they object to the Government which refuses to annex, and is in Egypt, providing for a withdrawal, or rather for a Conference on withdrawal, by-and-bye ? The Government cannot go, and will not promise to stay, and so asks for two years' more time, during which a thousand things may happen ; and one thing will certainly happen, namely, the election of a Parliament really representing the British people. If that Parliament deliberately, and with full knowledge of the risks, asks for the right to rule Egypt, the Government will acquire the right, if it can ; and the present agreement will be no more in the way than any agreement accepted by the last Pharaoh. The financial liability is nothing at all, for the New Loan is made the first charge on the revenues of Egypt ; and even if the interest were repudiated—as, for example, a conquering Mahdi would repudiate it—the Powers, as is clearly shown by Russia's special reservation, would pay the interest by subscription. Russia is the most embarrassed of them all ; but even she promises to pay one-sixth of the guaranteed interest. There is nothing in the criticism of the Agreement except a general wish that the Government would take Egypt, which it will not do.
There are two other points of which something might be made, but upon both the Government has a sufficient Parlia mentary reply. The mercy shown to the Bondholders is dis creditable. They ought to be deprived of half their bonds, • for which they only gave Egypt 10s. in the pound, and they are only deprived of five per cent. upon the interest. The argument on that point is unanswerable ; but the Government will reply that it has no answer to make. It entirely agrees with the objectors, and is quite aware that it is paying blackmail to great financiers ; but then, what else can it do ? It must, from its point of view, carry the Continent with it ; and it is one of many disgraceful facts of to-day that the Continental Governments, especially that of France, are in the hands of the great financiers and their clients. In Paris, for instance, so many Deputies are 44 influenced " by the great Syndicates, or hold Egyptian Bonds of their own, that if the Egyptian Debt were "scaled," as it ought to be, M. Ferry would in a month be thrown out of power. Even Prince Bismarck finds it needful to protect the Bondholders, or incur dangerous hostility, not so much in Berlin as in Vienna ; and the British Government, though loathing" the cesspool of agio," must take account of facts. It cannot be responsible for the independence, or even the integrity, of all the Governments it deals with. Again, it might well be argued that there is no certainty whatever that this loan of £9,000,000 will be the last. The Egyptian Government is never out of financial scrapes, and till directly managed by Europeans never will be, and a peasant's insurrection might ruin the Treasury of Cairo; but how can the British Government help that? Is Mr. Gladstone to turn prophet, and ask for twenty millions because some day or other, for some reason which he cannot state, and in some method that he cannot foresee, another sum of eleven millions will be wanted ? The idea is absurd, and so is the opposition to the ratification of the Agreement. The Tories may, if they like, demand that the whole policy in Egypt shall be changed, and the Government go out ; but they cannot demand that the Government shall go on, and that it shall do in Egypt the precise reverse of all that it has pledged itself to do. Such a demand is foolish, and will not, we believe, meet with the slightest response from the English people, who are obviously determined that the Government shall manage the Egyptian affair as it pleases. Half of them think the Government right, as the popular votes which followed on the late division showed, and believe that it will triumph ; and the other half hold that, as it is in a mess, it must get out of it for itself. We very much doubt if Sir Stafford Northcote thinks the Agreement a bad one with which to tide-over two years, and are quite certain that the true Radicals will give him no help whatever.
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