New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-20
SOS. s,o2o 472.ooo.OoO

Nearly three fOurths OF the Egyptian debt Is
held in England To meet the interest on this
debt certain taxes have been specially reserved
and paid to an international Commission.
The annual revenues Of Egypt are about
$40, 5000 OF this sum about $17,5O0,OOO
goes to the bondholders. 50, 80, 900 is Turkish
tribute and is RENTED TO the Bank OF England
to pay the interest on the Sultan's debts, and
the remainder, $21, $50, 900, is used at hcme
One-half of the revenue is set apart for the
bondholders the great majority OF whom are
Englshmen. London has thus become the
clearinghouse for bOndholders' greed.
One other point remains to be considered in
connection with this debt What proportion Of
the nominal amount of these various loans ever
went into the Egyptian treasury The dett
has been entirely created since 1852. In
1876, when Mr.. Goschen was sent to Cairo III
the interest Of the bOndhoders and when the
financial control (not the poitlcal-hnancia
control of 1879 was established, the debt had
reached 100000, 900; and ut the present
time it exceeds $50, 900. The conse
quence OF rapid borrowing at usuriOus rates
WAS that barely more than One-half of the face
of the debt was actually received. Mr.. McCoan
has stated in the Commons that out of FIVE
loans of Il nominal total of c55,O0O,OO0 the
Egyptian treasury had received only
G35,OOO,OOO. OF that sum it had paid in in
terest and sinking fund f29. 59O,99I up 10 the
end of 1875; yet it was still in debt to the
bondholders to the extent of flG,73 900.
The bonds, meanwhile, were passing from
hand to hand at the market price and ace umu-
lating in England, the regulations of the
Financial Control materially adding to their
value.
The bondhollers' claims are not the only
financial interests which England has in
Egypt To begin with. the exports and i'm
ports of the Nile basin amount to 500 600, 900
annually, and the bulk Of this trade is with
the United Kingdom. There have also been
heavy investments of British capital in bank
ing, commercial, land-improN cmcnJ and other
private enterprises. To these must he added
at least fourth of the entire capital invested
in British ships, for that is the proportion
which Tie lines UOndOn) estimates is engaged
i'm the SueZ Canal traffic. Besides having al
most a monopoly of the Canal commerce, Eng
land has proprietary rights in the waterway it
self. The Government purchased in 1876
from the Khedive l7G, 6O2 shares for something
which the profits had been alienated as far in
advance as 1891. but the Khcdlve agreed to
pay to the British Government interest on the
purchase money at the rate OF per cent dur
ing the intervening period. The Government
owns two-fftbs of the original shares of the
French company, and receives about 81 100000
annually from the Egyptian treasury in the
form of interest. This is direct proprietary
three-ffths Of the original capital is held in
England we have no means of Judging.
These, them are the financial interests which
England has at stake in Egypt. 1t is apparent,
however, that one class TAR exceeds in maglf-
tude all other interests. The trade with the
country, the masses of capital invested there,
and the sums which have been nominally lent
to the Khedivcs Government are not 10 be COM
pared with the commercial and political in
terests which centre i'll the short waterway be-
tween England and her Eastern dependencies.
For England the Egyptian question resolves
itself into the Sucz Canal. The bOndhOdcrs
claims might be a hundred times as great and
two or three times as honest, yet without the
Canal question British troops would not be IN
Egypt to-day. II is this fact which forces us
to dissent from our correspondents conclusion
that it is a bOndholders' war; Our Judgment Is
confirmed by the fact that every English journal
of any character and every speaker in the de-
bates on Egypt have repudatcd the idea that
the claims OF the bondholders afford any basis
for military Intervention. The Government is
within its right in restoring order IN the conn
try through which the Canal passes. To send