No. 630.
Mr. Comanos to Mr. Evarts.
Cairo, October 8, 1879. (Received November 3.)
Sir: In his dispatch No. 310, of July 3, 1879, Mr. Farman submitted to the Government of the United States, for its approval, the draft of a [Page 993] decree, composed of two articles, which the Government of the Khedive proposed to issue, with the assent of the powers signatory to the treaties of Egyptian judicial reform, and which related to the non-seizability, from the 1st of February, 1870, of the real properties mortgaged and given in pledge to the Messrs. Rothschild, for the so-called domanial loan of £8,500,000 contracted for on the 31st October, 1878. Mr. Farman at that time recommended that our government give its assent, and he requested a telegraphic reply.
In a private note to me, dated the 1st of October, 1879, of which I herewith inclose translation, His Excellency Mustapha Fehmi Pasha, the present minister of foreign affairs, refers to the above-mentioned draft of a decree, incloses the draft of an additional or third article—of which I herewith transmit copy and translation—and urgently requests me to solicit the United States Government to communicate to me its decision upon the draft of decree as composed of ali three articles. His excellency also says he has reason to believe that England, France, and Italy will at once approve of the proposed decree, if the third article be added to it.
I therefore beg you to inform me by cable what reply to give to the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs on this subject.
In addition to what Mr. Farman has already remarked in his dispatch No. 310 referred to above, the following statement, taken by me from the Phare d’Alexandrie, a semi-official paper, will set forth the straits in which the Egyptian Government is placed by reason, partly, of the steady refusal of Messrs. Rothschild to pay the balance of the loan in question without an international promise to respect the validity of the mortgage made in their favor.
I. The floating debt of Egypt will, by the end of October, 1879, amount approximately to the sum of £12,500,000, composed thus:
Owning to the great syndicate | £4,500,000 |
Owning to Greenfield & Paponot | 1,000,000 |
Salaries, pensions, and a part of the civil list of the Khedive | 1,100,000 |
European creditors: | |
(a) Judgments rendered up to end of August, 1879 | 3,200,000 |
(b) Pending claims, upon which judgment is sure to be rendered by end of October, 1879 | 300,000 |
(c) Balance of debt not having judgments | 400,000 |
Private native individual creditors | 400,000 |
10,900,000 | |
Owing to the Daïras, to the civil list, &c | 1,600,000 |
Total floating debt | 12,500,000 |
II. Available, i. e., assets: | |
Unified debt bonds deposited (nominal value) | £6,600,000 |
Value of original shares of founders of Suez Canal | 800,000 |
Price of water works of Alexandria city | 300,000 |
Balance still unpaid on the Rothschild or so-called domanial loan | 3,200,000 |
10,900,000 | |
To be deducted: Difference between nominal and market value of the £6,600,000 of unified debt bonds (not worth more than 50 per cent) | 3,300,000 |
Total available | 7,600,000 |
Deficit, October 31, 1879 | 4,900,000 |
12,500,000 |
III. But if Messrs. Rothschild do not pay the balance of the domanial loan (i. e., £3,200,000) this deficit will be £8,100,000—and they do refuse [Page 994] to pay any part of that balance until all the powers signatory to the treaties of judicial reform in Egypt signify their formal assent to the issuing of a Khedival decree that shall secure the validity of the mortgage to them of the real properties ceded by the Khedival family to the Egyptian State, and by it given in pledge to secure the said loan.
Since receiving the private letter of Mustapha Fehmi Pasha, I have seen him personally, and he begged me to earnestly solicit the Government of the United States to give its early attention to this question, and to telegraph me its decision.
I am, &c.,
Vice-Consul-General in Charge.