Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1899-02-16


kind of English opposition; while last
but not least, well-nigh the whole of
the national debt of Egypt. aggregat-
ing some s5OO.oOO,OOO. is held by
French investors.
From this it will be seen that
France has certain preferred rights n
Egypt, which until 1882 were to such
an extent recognized by the English
that the latter readily agreed to work
in conjunction with France at Cairo.
the two powers being ON an equal
footing in every particular.
Up to the time of the construction of
the Suez canal there had been no at
tempt on the part of any of the Europ-
can powers to interfere with the in
ternal administration of Egypt. a
country which so recently as 40 years
ago was entirely free from any ma
uonal debt. Increased intercourse
with Europe brought about by the
construction of the great waterway
between the Red sea and the Medi-
terranean led Khedive Said, and after
him his nephew Ismail, to begin an
era of such insane extrayagance that
in the short space of 16 years a debt
of more than 100000. 900 had been
piled up, and the Egyptian govern
ment had been brought face to face
with bankruptcy. AS the money had
been entirely borrowed in Europe, and
as, moreover, the governments of the
countries to which Egypts creditors
belonged were convinced that the in
terest upon the debt could be paid If
only there was anything in the ma
ture of an honest and capable admin
istration, Khedive Ismail was induced
under threats of deposition to submit
to the nomination of an English min
lister of finance and French minister
of public works in his native cabinet.
1t being understood that their direc-
tions were to be obeyed.
The arrangement, after a three
months trial. was brought to a close
by a riot, in which the Egyptian
premier and his English colleague
We're grossly maltreated. Investiga-
ton proved that it was the khedive
himself who had instigated the riot,
with view of putting an end 10 this
form of foreign interference, when
he objected to on the ground that it
constituted an obstacle to his looting
the state treasury, as he had been in
the habit of doing until then. For
of the S600,0OO0OO borrowed from
Europe, not more than S200.0OO,00 had
ever found its way into the national
treasury the balance having remained
in the pockets of the khedive and of
his parasites, foreign as well as
European.
Finding that Ismail was about to
follow this by total reputation of
the debt, with the object of winning
the good will of his subjects, stagger-
ing under the burden of excessive tax
alton, England and France together
secured without difficulty from the
sultan fireman deposing him from
the throne and instituting his son,
Tewfik, as khedive in his place. At
the same time a French government
official, M. De Blignieres, and Sir
Auckland Colvin of the Indian civil
service we're nominated by their re-
spective governments as European
controllers general of Egypt, with
powers superior to those of the native
cabinet, the understanding being
their directions were to be followed,
that they possessed the right of veto,
and that they were in every sense of
the word the European mentors of the
khedive. This was known as the
"condominium.
unfortunately, this power of the
two controllers-general was purely
theoretical in this sense, that neither
France nor England was prepared to
back up the commands of Sir Auck-
land and Of M. De Blignieres by force.
The native officials knew this, and
resenting the interference of strang-
ers in the internal administration of
the country, by degrees stirred up pop
ular discomfort, not only against the
two controllers, but likewise against
Khedive Tewfik and those Egyptians
who were in favor OF the new order
OF things. This movement gradually
took the form of an anti-foreign and
anti-Chrlstian agitation. 1t was easy
to persuade the overtaxed peasanory
and farmers that IL imposts weighed
so heavily upon their shoulders II
was because OF the necessity of pay
Ing exorbtant interest to the Europ-
can creditors of the nation. And
then, too, most of the local usurers
being Italian, Greek or Syrian Chris
tians, the people felt convinced that II
only the Christians could be driven
out OF the country by means OF Mo-
hammedan revival, they would be rid
not only of their national debt, but
likewise Of their individual liabilities
to the money-lenders. That was the
true cause and origin OF the so-called
Arab instruction of 1882, which Gull
minated in the occupation of tie
land of the Nile by Great Britain and
in the withdrawal of the French.
AS soon as ever the instruction had
actually broken out, the controllers |
general having previously resigned,
owing to their inability to enforce any
Of their recommendations and their
uselessness, a conference
Of the great powers was at once sum
moned at CongtantinopIe In order To /