883.5122/11
The American Minister in Egypt (Gunther) to the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Yeghen Pasha)43
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s circular note No. 48–2/1 (cir. 81) of November 11, 1929,44 reminding me of the note which Your Excellency’s predecessor had addressed to the Chargé d’Affaires on August 7, last, communicating a draft decree relative to the Ghaffir Tax and requesting that the matter be submitted to my Government with a view to obtaining its consent to the application of the provisions of this decree to Americans residing in Egypt.
In reply, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that my Government will be glad to give its consent to the application of the Ghaffir Tax to Americans resident in Egypt if and when the other powers enjoying capitulatory rights in Egypt consent thereto.
I have the honor to invite Your Excellency’s consideration to the expediency of redrafting, in the interest of clarity, Article 2 of the above mentioned draft decree. As at present drafted, it is not perfectly clear that the tenant could not be held liable for a greater proportion of his annual rental than that actually due at the moment when the owner of the property may default in the matter of the payment of the Ghaffir Tax. Your Excellency might wish to consider including a phrase in this Article to the effect that the tenant may only be held liable, at any time, for the actual amount of rental already due at that moment, that is to say, at the time the tax is collected. It is understood, of course, that the tenant may deduct the tax from the rental due to his landlord.
In a recent informal conversation with His Excellency Waguih Pasha, he informed me that certain substantial improvements were being made in the Ghaffir service in the rural districts and that he felt that hereafter no one residing in the rural districts would have cause for complaint. As Your Excellency is undoubtedly aware, heretofore Americans having property or business interests in rural Egypt have found it necessary to employ their own independent guards. I know that it would be a source of gratification to my Government if in due course I might be acquainted with the measures of improvement instituted by the Royal Egyptian Government for communication to interested Americans.
I avail myself [etc.]
[In a note dated February 13, 1930, the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs informed the American Minister in Egypt of the approval by the capitulatory powers of the draft decree (883.5122/13), but the decree was not promulgated. In a note dated January 25, 1931, the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs announced the intention to promulgate a modified decree as of January 1 (883.5122/20). The Secretary of State in instruction No. 36, March 24, 1931, informed the Minister in Egypt: “In view of the fact that the new Egyptian law is even less restrictive than that to which this Government originally consented, your action in the matter [reiterating American consent] is approved.” (883.5122/21). The law as promulgated was published on May 2, 1931, in the Journal Officiel, No. 43.]