The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-08 00:00:00

THE GOVERNMENT OF EGYPT.

When in our last issue (the St. Siep7en's Review)
we commented on the scandals in Cairo connected
with Tewiik, the matter was so recent that we had
scarcely time to do more than skim the surface. Since
then, however, I have carefully examined the allega-
tions, and I think that in the interests of Egypt tied
England, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery So-
ciety shoald e:ther be compelled to withdraw their
charges or, assuming that the matter is proven, no
time should be lost in deposing the present Khedive.
It is almost outside the range of human probability
that a monarch who holcts his throne on the suf-
ferance of the British Prime Minister should be guilty
of such an atrocity as the following, which I take from
the lately - issued pamphlet of the society to
whom documentary evidence in support of all
the statements has been submitted: "During the
beginning of March, 1885, a certain Abdallah Sheikoula
a Aeahomedan, was passing through the canal on his
way back to his native place at lialab in Syria. He
had been on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and had embarked
at Jeddah with his two wives. The latter we re
Abyssinians, had been formerly slaves, but had since
received their freedom and had been duly married.
Notwithstanding the fact that Abdallah had the
marriage certificates and the liberation papers of his
two wives in proper form and order, and submitted
them to the Governor of Port Said, the latter seized
both women under the pretence that they were slaves.
One of them, who was enciente, he sent as a present
to his brother-in-law, Ahmed Bey Ab del Ilnzak, who
belongs to the Khedive's household. The other
woman was kept temporarily by the Governor for his -
own use. The husband, who, if the seizure had been
legal, should have been imprisoned, came up to
Cairo, and cited Ahmed Bey Rezak to appear before
the Cadi. Ahmed Bey put in an appearance,
admitted that his brother-in-law had sent him the
woman in question, and promised the judge that he
would bring the woman to the Cadi on the fol-
lowing day. The next day, however, he wrote the
Cadi a letter, which is duly filed, stating that the
woman in question had escaped from his house
during the night. The unfortunate husband there-
upon addressed himself to the Governor of Cairo,
and lodged a complaint against the Governor of Port
Said. The religious authorities, taking into consi-
deration the fact that the bereaved husband was on
his way back from Mecca, interested themselves in
the matter, and the Minister of the Interior sum-
moned the Governor of Port Said to Cairo. After a
good deal of equivocation and denial the woman was
at last brought before the Cadi, where she stated
that she desired to remain with Abdul Bey Ratak,
and not return to her husband. However, on being
admonished by the Cadi, she showed signs of hesita-
tion, and was taken to the English home above
mentioned, where, after a few hours' stay, she asserted
that she had been induced to make the abo,-e de-
claration by the threats-of Abdul Bey Rezak.
She was thereupon, in compliance with her own re-
quest, restored to her husband. The second wife,
who was at first kept by the Governor of
Port Said for his own use, was, after a
short time, sent up to Cairo, as a present
to the Khedive, who appears to have a special pre-
dilection for Abyssirian slaves. When Abdul Bey
Rezak was forced to sure ender wife No. 1 the Khe-
dive sent one of his people to the Cadi with a certifi-
cate that wife No. 2 had died at the house of his old
nurse, Esher Hanem, in the Daoudah quarter of the
town. Unfortunately the death certificate put for-
ward referred to the deceased as a coal-black Sou-
danese, 40 years of age, named Adamker, whereas the
girl in question was only 16 years old, was named
Garaelah, and was an almost white Abyssinian. The
corpse-washer likewise testified, in the presence of
four witnesses, that the corpse she had washed on the
date and at the house mentioned on the certificate
put forward, was that of a negro woman over 40 years
old. , Finding the matter becoming rather awkward,
the Khedive sent down one of the palace officials to
the Ministry of the Interior with a sum of £lOO in
gold, which was paid to the husband in presence of a
minister, on his signing a receipt, whereby he acknow-
ledged receiving the money as frais de deplacement
and ,for expenses incurred whilst in search of his
" dead" wife. This reeeipt was written out by one of
the sub-inspectors of the slavery department. The
transaction took place on the 25th April, and a few
days later the unfortunate husband, who had spent
over two months in Cairo in search of his wives, left
for his home to see what he could recover from the
wreck of his once prosperous business, now ruined by
his unexpected absence. In September last the
Governor of Port Said arrested a Turk named
Mohamed Abdul Azir, a well-known slave-dealer, on
his way from Hadaideh (on the Red Sea Coast) to
Diar Bakri (on the Turkish frontier), with ten young
Abyssinian slaves, viz., six females, three boys and
one eunuch, in his possession. The Governor's copy
of the slaves' depositions, which is included in the
dossier of the affair, shows that they en-
treated to be allowed to return to Abyssinia,
but, naturally, in vain. After having received
pro forma their liberation papers, four were
sent to Cairo as a present to the Khedive, three were
kept by the Governor himself, and the remainder
otherwise disposed of." Can there be any question ,
after a perusal of the foregoing that Ismail is wanted
badly at Cairo? He has been accused of a good
many impious transactions of which he was as innocent
as the babe unborn,butnot even his most malignant foes
have ever suggested that he had a weakness for young I
women of Abyssinian extraction, nor indeed could I
Gordon, who hated the very name of slavery, have
stuck to him so manfully had he evinced any
symptoms of sympathy with that unholy traffic.